Emotions video for autistic kids
Updated on 05 April 2008
Children with autism can learn to read the emotions of others by watching animated vehicle characters with human expressions, research has shown.
The Transporters is an animation series designed by experts at Cambridge University to reach out to autistic children. Thousands of copies of the video were distributed to families in an initiative commissioned by the Government.
New research presented at the British Psychological Society's annual meeting in Dublin showed that the experiment was proving phenomenally successful.
After just one month watching the series, autistic children were as good at reading emotions as normal children. Autism is a behavioural disorder marked by an inability to interact socially and empathise, and a focus on mechanical systems.
Many autistic children have an affinity with vehicles, probably because they move in predictable ways. With this in mind The Transporters series was populated with eight toy vehicle characters, including a train, ferry, bus, a tractor and two cable cars. Each has an expressive human face grafted on to its front end.
Humans, on the other hand, are deliberately depicted as static plastic toys.
The storyline involves a toy set in a child's bedroom that comes to life when its owner goes to school.
With a narration by the actor Stephen Fry, each episode focuses on a different emotion. Helped by the toy characters' emotional faces, children watching the videos are taught to understand the causes of emotions and emotional facial expressions.
Autistic children who had watched the series were significantly better at recognising emotions than autistic children who had not. In fact, after a month, they reached normal levels of emotional recognition.
Researcher Emma Ashwin, from the Autistic Research Centre at Cambridge University, said: "It is really promising that we may be able to help children with autism to become much better at socialising through their increased recognition of others' feelings."
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