  In this exploratory study we assessed how attitudes of children with autism
spectrum disorder (ASD) towards robots together with children's autism-related
social impairments are linked to indicators of children's preference of an
interaction with a robot over an interaction with a person. We found that
children with ASD have overall positive attitudes towards robots and that they
often prefer interacting with a robot than with a person. Several of children's
attitudes were linked to children's longer gazes towards a robot compared to a
person. Autism-related social impairments were linked to more repetitive and
stereotyped behaviors and to a shorter gaze duration in the interaction with
the robot compared to the person. These preliminary results contribute to
better understand factors that might help determine sub-groups of children with
ASD for whom robots could be particularly useful.
