Efficacy of a Facial Expression Recognition Training Program on School-Aged Children with Asperger's Disorder
| Autor: | Li Ying Wang, 王儷穎 |
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| Rok vydání: | 2010 |
| Druh dokumentu: | 學位論文 ; thesis |
| Popis: | 98 Asperger’s disorder is a pervasive developmental disorder with one of its core symptom characterized by the notable difficulties in social interactions, which is usually developed from childhood to adolescence and adulthood. Previous researches have suggested that such impairment in social interactions is probably due to some deficits in the theory of mind. There have been various methods and materials developed internationally for training the theory of mind. Among them, some are computer software specially designed for children of special needs. Recently, a-computer-assisted instructional software-“Human Facial Expression Recognition”, developed by Yang (2009), has showed some positive effect in improving the ability of facial expression recognition in children with high-functioning Autism. This study intends to evaluate the applicability and effect of this software to children with Asperger’s disorder in enhancing their ability of facial expression recognition. Nine boys with Asperger’s disorder of 9 to 12 years received the training of the “Human Facial Expression Recognition”. A pre- and post-test design was used to compare the performance of the participants on various outcome measures before and after the training. Selection measures consisted of (1) Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised; (2) Chinese Grade Word Recognition Test; (3) Raven Standard Progressive Matrices; (4) Gilliam Asperger’s Disorder Scale; (5) Child Behavior Checklist and Teacher Report Form; (6) Socialization subscale of Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales Second Edition and Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale. Outcome measures included (1) Facial Expression Recognition Task in the training software （2）Diagnostic Analysis of Non-Verbal Accuracy II-Taiwan Version (DANVA 2-TW); (3) Children’s version of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (Eyes Test); (4) Advanced Theory of Mind Test (ToM Test). Each participant’s data were presented individually for direct comparison and the Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used for group analy. The results showed that this software can partially improve the ability of facial expression recognition for the participants. There were significant improvements in the accuracy of the Facial Expression Recognition Task after the training. However, no significant pre-post differences were found in the participants’ performances on the DANVA 2-TW, Eyes Test, and ToM Test. The results of this study showed that the computer assisted instructional software-“Human Facial Expression Recognition” is applicable for children with Asperger’s disorder to improve their ability of facial expression recognition. Beside direct training effect, however, no generalization effect was found. Our findings showed that training software can be a handy instrument in helping children with Asperger’s disorder given its convenience and cost-effectiveness. However, using it alone, its effect is limited. For clinical application, it is suggested that a training software can be included as an initial training step in a comprehensive multi-component training programs. Future studies are needed in order to develop better training softwares. |
| Databáze: | Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations |
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