  Affect-aware socially assistive robotics (SAR) tutors have great potential to
augment and democratize professional therapeutic interventions for children
with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) from different socioeconomic backgrounds.
However, the majority of research on SAR for ASD has been on teaching cognitive
and/or social skills, not on addressing users' emotional needs for real-world
social situations. To bridge that gap, this work aims to develop personalized
affect-aware SAR tutors to help alleviate social anxiety and foster social
grit-the growth mindset for social skill development-in children with ASD. We
propose a novel paradigm to incorporate clinically validated Acceptance and
Commitment Training (ACT) with personalized SAR interventions. This work paves
the way toward developing personalized affect-aware SAR interventions to
support the unique and diverse socio-emotional needs and challenges of children
with ASD.
