How Neurotypical and Autistic Children Interact Nonverbally with Anthropomorphic Agents in Open-Ended Tasks

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Zhang, Chuxuan, Burkanova, Bermet, Kim, Lawrence H., Iarocci, Grace, Birmingham, Elina, Lim, Angelica
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Zhang, Chuxuan
Burkanova, Bermet
Kim, Lawrence H.
Iarocci, Grace
Birmingham, Elina
Lim, Angelica
author_facet Zhang, Chuxuan
Burkanova, Bermet
Kim, Lawrence H.
Iarocci, Grace
Birmingham, Elina
Lim, Angelica
contents What nonverbal behaviors should a robot respond to? Understanding how children-both neurotypical and autistic-engage with embodied artificial agents is critical for developing inclusive and socially interactive systems. In this paper, we study "open-ended" unconstrained interactions with embodied agents, where little is known about how children behave nonverbally when given few instructions. We conducted a Wizard-of-Oz study in which children were invited to interact nonverbally with 6 different embodied virtual characters displayed on a television screen. We collected 563 (141 unique) nonverbal behaviors produced by children and compare the childre's interaction patterns with those previously reported in an adult study. We also report the presence of repetitive face and hand movements, which should be considered in the development of nonverbally interactive artificial agents.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_07843
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle How Neurotypical and Autistic Children Interact Nonverbally with Anthropomorphic Agents in Open-Ended Tasks
Zhang, Chuxuan
Burkanova, Bermet
Kim, Lawrence H.
Iarocci, Grace
Birmingham, Elina
Lim, Angelica
Human-Computer Interaction
What nonverbal behaviors should a robot respond to? Understanding how children-both neurotypical and autistic-engage with embodied artificial agents is critical for developing inclusive and socially interactive systems. In this paper, we study "open-ended" unconstrained interactions with embodied agents, where little is known about how children behave nonverbally when given few instructions. We conducted a Wizard-of-Oz study in which children were invited to interact nonverbally with 6 different embodied virtual characters displayed on a television screen. We collected 563 (141 unique) nonverbal behaviors produced by children and compare the childre's interaction patterns with those previously reported in an adult study. We also report the presence of repetitive face and hand movements, which should be considered in the development of nonverbally interactive artificial agents.
title How Neurotypical and Autistic Children Interact Nonverbally with Anthropomorphic Agents in Open-Ended Tasks
topic Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.07843