A Pilot Study Examining a Computer-Based Intervention to Improve Recognition and Understanding of Emotions in Young Children with Communication and Social Deficits.
Quick computer emotion lessons can give preschoolers with autism a lasting boost that shows up in real peer play.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Romero (2017) tested a short computer game that teaches happy, sad, angry, and scared faces. Three preschool kids with autism played the game in a self-contained classroom.
The team used a multiple-baseline design. They tracked how well the kids picked the right emotion on the screen and later with real classmates.
What they found
All three children improved on the computer task. Their new skills also showed up when they looked at real peers on the playground.
One month later the gains were still there. No extra teaching was needed to keep the progress.
How this fits with other research
Chen et al. (2015) extends this idea to older students. They used augmented-reality mirrors with teens and saw similar emotion gains, showing the tech trick works past preschool.
Brosnan et al. (2015) seems to disagree. Their teens with autism only scored well on cartoon faces, not real ones. The clash fades when you note age: little kids may generalize easier than adolescents.
Miller et al. (2018) used the same setup—computer lessons in a classroom—and got more eye contact. The pattern hints that brief screen time can nudge several social skills in young autistic learners.
Why it matters
You can add a five-minute emotion game to your tablet rotation tomorrow. Pick programs that show both cartoon and real faces. Track choices with simple cold-probes before recess to check if the skill jumps to peers. The low cost and fast results make this a smart first step before heavier social curricula.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: A common social impairment in individuals with ASD is difficulty interpreting and or predicting emotions of others. To date, several interventions targeting teaching emotion recognition and understanding have been utilized both by researchers and practitioners. The results suggest that teaching emotion recognition is possible, but that the results do not generalize to non-instructional contexts. This study sought to replicate earlier findings of a positive impact of teaching emotion recognition using a computer-based intervention and to extend it by testing for generalization on live models in the classroom setting. METHOD: Two boys and one girl, four to eight years in age, educated in self-contained classrooms for students with communication and social skills deficits, participated in this study. A multiple probe across participants design was utilized. Measures of emotion recognition and understanding were assessed at baseline, intervention, and one month post-intervention to determine maintenance effects. Social validity was assessed through parent and teacher questionnaires. RESULTS: All participants showed improvements in measures assessing their recognition of emotions in faces, generalized knowledge to live models, and maintained gains one month post intervention. CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary results are encouraging and should be utilized to inform a group design, in order to test efficacy with a larger population.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2017 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2017.04.007