Teaching Emotional Recognition in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Generalizing into Reality Using Systematic Vehicles

Abstract

Individuals with ASD have deficits in theory of mind, which includes limited ability in emotional recognition, but have superior systemizing abilities. The current study was designed to enhance the emotional recognition abilities in children with ASD, specifically to generalize into real life situations, through the use of The Transporters DVDs. The 5 week study included 33 children (23 diagnosed with ASD) who were tested before and after intervention with The Transporters DVDs. Participants who received treatment showed significantly better emotional recognition in all 6 testing levels. Generalization into real life situations significantly improved, but showed less improvement than all other levels. These findings suggest that emotional recognition can be improved, but individuals with ASD still struggle with generalization involving complex emotions or stimuli.