Parenting Journal · Volume 1 · Issue 2 · Licensed source edition
Affective Communication for Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review
Originally published 2021-07-30 · Sensors (Basel, Switzerland)
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) · DOI 10.3390/s21155166 ↗
AI / system type
Affective computing and socially assistive robots; computational emotion models, not generative AI
Family implicationsDesign, ethics, stakeholder or technical evidence with child/family implications; household benefits are not assumed.
The AI connection
Affective computing and socially assistive robots; computational emotion models, not generative AI. Explains computational emotion models behind purportedly caring assistive robots.
Why this reading matters
Connects technical implementation with interpretation of assistive-robot claims, useful before treating animated emotional cues as understanding.
Editorial reading guide · Kindness
What technology underlies a robot’s emotional expressions?
Explains computational emotion models behind purportedly caring assistive robots.
Study context
46 affective-communication studies from 1997–2021
Age / stage: Child/autism applications; not every included study enrolled autistic children
Read with three questions
- Which studies actually involved autistic children?
- How were emotions represented computationally?
- Was clinical benefit or transfer evaluated?
Keep the limits in view
Technical heterogeneous review, not a meta-analysis of treatment effects; not all included work directly studied autistic children. Simulated expressions and recognition models do not establish felt empathy.
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Sandra Cano; Carina S González; Rosa María Gil-Iranzo; Sergio Albiol-Pérez; Francisco José Perales; Cristina Manresa-Yee; Anthony Lewis Brooks (2021). Affective Communication for Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review Sensors (Basel, Switzerland). https://doi.org/10.3390/s21155166
Permissions checked against the saved article notice; repository publication notices screened 2026-11-04. This is not a new peer-review decision. The source authors and publishers are not represented as endorsing this issue.