## 4 Discussion  
The present study was designed to address whether using interaction between autistic children and the NAO robot could be used to develop a diagnosis tool to screen ASD symptoms in preschool children, including behaviors such as turn-taking. Under the \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline
**Measure** & **Diagnosis** & \(Me\) & **Comparison Results** \\ \hline Interest in the robot & Autism & \(13\) & Mann–Whitney \(U=220.0\), \\  & Typically developing & \(7\) & \(p<0.001\) \\ Additional & Autism & \(4\) & Mann–Whitney \(U=167.5\), \\ movements & Typical development & \(0\) & \(p<0.001\) \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 4: Results of non-parametric (Mann–Whitney) comparison of autistic vs. typically developing children in the additional measures, i.e., _Interest in the robot_ and _Additional movements_conditions of two programmed scenarios for two game contexts (the _Touch me_ and _Dance with me_ games) which induce turn-taking behaviors, it was found that children with ASD produced significantly less turn-taking behaviors than children with a typical developmental pattern [Q1]. This supports the suggestion that assessing turn-taking plays a valuable role in diagnosing autism and that the interaction between an autistic child and a robot can provide predictable and reliable situations in which the complexity of interactions can be an efficiently observed. Addressing the second research question [Q2], it was found that autistic children were rated as expressing more interest in the robot and more additional movements than typically developing children during interactions with the robot. These results have face validity when considering the characteristics of autism that have been observed in other studies. In the Touch me game, children were asked to interact closely with the robot (e.g., touch the robot's body parts) in a completely new situation. As opposed to the general population, individuals with autism are usually severely aroused in new situations [47; 48]. This state of arousal can also intensify when children find themselves in an unexpected situation. As arousal emerges, additional movements (e.g., mannerisms or stereotypical movements) are produced by individuals with autism; these movements are characteristic of children with ASD and are far less frequently displayed by typically developing children. If they do occur among typically developing children, they are less intense (DSM V, 2013). In addition, children with ASD may experience ambivalent tendencies [47] (together with anxiety), which may result in paradoxically high interest in the robot. High interest in in inanimate objects also exemplifies well-known observations related to the preference of children with ASD for objects over people [1]. The aforementioned anxiety and ambivalent tendencies are also plausible causes of the reduced turn-taking that was observed among the autistic population in the _Touch me_ and _Dance with me_ games. The robot environment, in particular, the _Dance with me_ game, allows the diagnostic evaluation not only of imitation but also of other ASD symptoms, such as visual motor coordination, which is dependent on multisensory integration [48]. Properly functioning sensory integration forms the basis of visual motor coordination, motor planning and praxis, i.e., phenomena that are disturbed in autistic children. In turn, this imitation, which is weakened in ASD individuals, is often related to their difficulties in dividing, sharing and focusing attention. Additionally, results from the additional subscales confirmed the presence of other ASD symptoms. In particular, there was greater interest in the robot among the autistic children compared to the typically developing children. This is additional evidence for the strong focus on inanimate objects [1] (e.g., on the robot) that is characteristic of autism. Additionally, analysis of the movements presented by autistic children in the games indicated a substantial increase in additional movements, such as mannerisms or stereotypical movements.