ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Human Developmental Psychology
This article is part of the Research TopicSerious Games, Robotics, and Digital-Therapeutics in Neurodevelopmental DisordersView all articles
Sally and… Cozmo? Training Theory of Mind using a toy robot: a pilot study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Genova, Italy
- 2Piccolo Cottolengo Genovese di Don Orione, Genova, Italy
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This pilot study investigated the feasibility of using a commercially available toy robot (Cozmo) as a support tool within Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)-based interventions for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Fourteen children with a confirmed ASD diagnosis participated in a two-period crossover design, in which robot-assisted training was compared with standard therapy alone. Training activities were based on classical false-belief paradigms, adapted for interaction with the robot, while Theory of Mind (ToM) and emotion recognition were assessed independently with the NEPSY-II subscales at baseline (T0), after the first intervention period (T1), and after crossover (T2). Results indicated that the combination of robot-assisted and standard therapy produced greater improvements than standard therapy alone. While the study was conducted in a clinical setting under therapist supervision, the use of an affordable, portable, and engaging toy robot highlights the potential for integrating such tools into broader intervention contexts. These findings suggest that toy-like robots may represent an accessible and motivating complement to established practices, warranting further exploration with larger and more heterogeneous samples.
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder, robot-assisted therapy, social cognition, Theory of Mind, Commercial Robotics
Received: 29 Apr 2025; Accepted: 12 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ghiglino, Floris, De Tommaso and Wykowska. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Davide Ghiglino, davide.ghiglino@iit.it
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