Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Jul:27:54-72.
doi: 10.1016/j.rasd.2016.01.004.

The effects of embodied rhythm and robotic interventions on the spontaneous and responsive social attention patterns of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): A pilot randomized controlled trial

Sudha M Srinivasan  1 , Inge-Marie Eigsti  2 , Linda Neelly  3 , Anjana N Bhat  4
Affiliations

The effects of embodied rhythm and robotic interventions on the spontaneous and responsive social attention patterns of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): A pilot randomized controlled trial

Sudha M Srinivasan et al. Res Autism Spectr Disord. 2016 Jul.

Abstract

We compared the effects of 8-weeks of rhythm and robotic interventions with those of a comparison, standard-of-care intervention, on the spontaneous and responsive social attention patterns of school-age children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Attention patterns were examined within a standardized pretest/posttest measure of joint attention (JA) and a training-specific social attention measure during early, mid, and late training sessions. The rhythm and comparison groups demonstrated improvements in JA. Social attention was greater in the rhythm followed by the robot and lastly the comparison group. The robot and comparison groups spent maximum time fixating on the robot and objects, respectively. Across sessions, the robot group decreased attention to the robot and increased attention to elsewhere. Overall, rhythmic movement contexts afford sustained social monitoring in children with autism.

Keywords: attention; autism; embodied interventions; rhythm; robots.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram describing participant enrollment and treatment allocation using Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) guidelines
Figure 2A
Figure 2A
Experimental set-up for a rhythm group training session
Figure 2B
Figure 2B
Experimental set-up for a robot group training session
Figure 2C
Figure 2C
Experimental set-up for a comparison group training session
Figure 3
Figure 3
Intervention-related changes in total response scores of the JTAT *p ≤ 0.05
Figure 4A
Figure 4A
Intervention-related changes in attention patterns in the Rhythm group
Figure 4B
Figure 4B
Intervention-related changes in attention patterns in the Robot group
Figure 4C
Figure 4C
Intervention-related changes in attention patterns in the Comparison group *p ≤ 0.05
Figure 5A
Figure 5A
Activity-related differences in attention patterns in the Rhythm group
Figure 5B
Figure 5B
Activity-related differences in attention patterns in the Robot group
Figure 5C
Figure 5C
Activity-related differences in attention patterns in the Comparison group
Figure 6
Figure 6
Group differences in spontaneous and responsive social attention *p ≤ 0.05
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. 5th. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association; 2013.
    1. Annaz D, Campbell R, Coleman M, Milne E, Swettenham J. Young children with autism spectrum disorder do not preferentially attend to biological motion. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 2012;42(3):401–408. - PubMed
    1. Bakeman R, Adamson LB. Coordinating attention to people and objects in mother-infant and peer-infant interaction. Child Development. 1984;55(4):1278–1289. - PubMed
    1. Baldwin DA. Joint attention: Its origins and role in development. Hillsdale, NJ, England: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc; 1995. Understanding the link between joint attention and language. In C. Moore P. J. Dunham (Ed.) pp. 131–158.
    1. Baranek GT. Autism during infancy: A retrospective video analysis of sensory-motor and social behaviors at 9–12 months of age. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 1999;29(3):213–224. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources