Enhancing Emotion Recognition in Children with Autism Spectrum Conditions: an Intervention Using Animated Vehicles with Real Emotional Faces

Overview

Journal J Autism Dev Disord

Publisher Springer

Date 2009 Sep 19

PMID 19763807

Citations 80

Authors

Ofer Golan

Emma Ashwin

Yael Granader

Suzy McClintock

Kate Day

Victoria Leggett

Simon Baron-Cohen

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

This study evaluated The Transporters, an animated series designed to enhance emotion comprehension in children with autism spectrum conditions (ASC). n = 20 children with ASC (aged 4-7) watched The Transporters everyday for 4 weeks. Participants were tested before and after intervention on emotional vocabulary and emotion recognition at three levels of generalization. Two matched control groups of children (ASC group, n = 18 and typically developing group, n = 18) were also assessed twice without any intervention. The intervention group improved significantly more than the clinical control group on all task levels, performing comparably to typical controls at Time 2. We conclude that using The Transporters significantly improves emotion recognition in children with ASC. Future research should evaluate the series' effectiveness with lower-functioning individuals.

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