1. Introduction

2. Fostering Communication and Social Interaction

3. Fostering Specific Behaviors

3.1. Supporting the Learning of Appropriate Behaviors

32.2. Reducing Maladaptive Behaviors: Repetitive Behaviors and Anxiety

43. A Preference for Interacting with Robots Rather than Humans in Individuals

with Autism Spectrum DisorderD?

The benefits for individuals with ASD of interacting with a robot (at least in terms of social development) raise several questions. First, it is worth asking whether this type of interaction is more attractive to individuals with ASD than interaction with a human, as has been proposed in several studies ^{[7][47][58][59]}[11,15,82,83]. In the next section, rwesearchers will look at how individuals with ASD perceive robots, and what characteristics they attribute to them.

54. Reasons Provided to Explain the Benefits of Robots

 Several explanations can be proposed based on different theories aimed at explaining the social difficulties observed in autism. ResearchersWe have already observed that people with ASD have social difficulties and show less interest in social stimuli than Typically Developing (TD) D individuals. The link between social skills and social motivation seems well established in children with ASD: those with the least social motivation have more severe social difficulties ^[60][61][62][148–150]. Nevertheless, the meaning of this association remains to be determined.

Two main theories have been proposed to explain the association between social difficulties and reduced social interest observed in autism ^[63][151]: Social Motivation Theory ^[64][152] and Social Cognition Theory ^[65][66][74,153]. RWesearchers will analyze the two theories that seek to explain the causality between these two characteristics of ASD and build on these theories to explain the benefits brought about by robots. 

65. Conclusions

In conclusion, the use of robots with people with ASD appears to be beneficial in encouraging communication and social interaction, supporting the learning of specific social behaviors, and reducing maladaptive behaviors. Interaction with robots could improve the social skills of individuals with ASD ^[3][17]. Children with autism touch and look more at a robot than at a human ^[7][17][19][15,28,30]. They also show a greater tendency to follow a robot’s gaze than a human’s gaze ^[32][43]. Children’s participation in an activity is increased when a robot is present ^[34][36][45,47], thus increasing interaction initiation ^[6][35][14,46] and speech production ^[33][44]. During an action imitation task performed by a human or robotic arm, children with autism perform better with the robotic arm, while TD children perform better with the human arm ^[42][53]. Furthermore, when ToM training is implemented, children with ASD make more progress with a humanoid robot than with a human ^[47][11], and the same results are observable in emotion recognition training with an iconic robot ^[10][21]. Finally, studies suggest that the stress felt by individuals with ASD during social interactions could be reduced with a robotic partner ^[39][50], leading to a decrease in the occurrence of stereotyped behaviors ^[17][34][28,45]. Further studies are needed to confirm the influence of robots on stereotyped behavior, but the benefits of robots on social development have been confirmed by a recent meta-analysis ^[3][17].

Although autistic children may categorize robots in the same way as TD children, they seem more attracted to robots and attribute more human characteristics to them. Some studies even suggest that theyare more interested in robots than in humans. RWesearchers sought to explain the benefits of robots by drawing on two theories: Social Motivation Theory and Social Cognition Theory. On the one hand, considering Social Motivation Theory, individuals with ASD may show more interest in a non-human agent than in a human one. This increased interest in interaction would then allow them to accumulate social experience, which could consequently reduce their social difficulties. On the other hand, as Social Cognition Theory argues that people with ASD engage less in interactions due to difficulties in understanding the social world, it is conceivable that a simpler, more predictable agent such as a robot could reduce these difficulties. As a result, this type of agent would encourage autistic individuals to engage more fully in social interactions. The robot, as a more attractive, simplified, and predictable social agent than a human, would thus encourage social interactions in autistic individuals. For children with significant social difficulties, robot-assisted training could thus constitute a step of intermediate difficulty compared to training with a human ^[67][182].

It therefore seems appropriate to rely on this type of agent when assessing the social skills of individuals with ASD: by reducing the difficulty of the interaction, a robot could enable children to better mobilize their abilities, leading to better estimation of their social skills. This suggests that psychology tests might be more successful if the experimenter is a robot rather than a human, as has already been shown in TD children ^{[68][69][70][71][72]}[247–251]. The robot would then provide a more accurate means of assessing social–cognitive functioning ^[73][74][252,253], which would be particularly relevant for children with ASD ^[75][254].