Exploring How People with Expressive Aphasia Interact with and Perceive a Social Robot

People with aphasia need high-intensive language training to significantly improve their language skills, however practical barriers arise. Socially assistive robots have been proposed as a possibility to provide additional language training. However, it is yet unknown how people with aphasia perceive interacting with a social robot, and which factors influence this interaction. The aim of this study was to gain insight in how people with mild to moderate chronic expressive aphasia perceived interacting with the social robot NAO, and to explore what needs and requisites emerged. A total of 11 participants took part in a single online semi-structured interaction, which was analysed using observational analysis, thematic analysis, and post-interaction questionnaire. The findings show that participants overall felt positive towards using the social robot NAO. Moreover, they perceived NAO as enjoyable, useful, and to a lesser extent easy to use. This exploratory study provides a tentative direction for the intention of people with mild to moderate chronic expressive aphasia to use social robots. Design implications and directions for future research are proposed.