Please follow links to Cosmobot and Other Robots links below for more on how Robots are being used to improve social skills:
The following excerpt is from an NBC Today show with Nancy Snyderman about a variety of robots used to improve social skills. The video features Keepon, also described on other page.
http://beatbots.net/2009/04/14/keepon-on-nbc-today-show/
Here is a link to a great New Yorker article on use of robots with children with autism.
The New Yorker Magazine publishes an article by Jerome Groopman entitled "Robots That Care" in November, 2009
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/11/02/091102fa_fact_groopman?currentPage=all