Social Robots to Encourage Play for Children with Disabilities

We are currently conducting a study with children and their family units to learn the requirements for, concerns about, barriers to, and opinions on using social robots to facilitate play in children with physical disabilities. The motivation for this work is that children with disabilities often have fewer opportunities and lower playfulness, impacting their cognitive and social development. Simultaneously, social robots provide opportunities for supporting these children to engage in play. To work toward developing these robots, our goal in this work is to improve our understanding of the fundamental needs of the child and their family unit to allow us to be better positioned to develop such a social robot.