Web application for the learning of emotions in children with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) tend to have a difficulty in interpreting and even expressing basic emotions such as joy or sadness, difficulties that can be mitigated with the support of tools that help those children understand and demonstrate emotions. The main goal of the presented work is to promote the learning of emotions in children with ASD, in a playful, didactic and simple way, through the use of a developed web application. Several games with different objectives were developed in order to optimize the acquisition of specific skills. The application gathers these games and makes them accessible in different contexts. A pilot study with seven children aged between six and eight years, three with ASD and four with typical development, was performed to validate the developed games, by analysing their suitability for the target audience. The results obtained allowed to verify that all players, with and without ASD, showed positive evolutions throughout all sessions, as they showed higher levels of interpretation regarding the game requests and completed the game with fewer errors and in less time.