Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder sometimes find it difficult to look at faces or understand what others may be thinking or feeling. But an attention-training game developed by researchers at the The Kids Institute is helping to improve social skill development in school-aged kids with autism.
Researchers, led by Dr Gail Alvares, designed and evaluated an app-based game that rewarded children for selecting pictures of faces and ignoring pictures of objects, like trains or clocks.
Using a machine called an eye-tracker, children were measured on how they looked at faces and objects before and after playing the game.
After playing the game for 15 minutes, children more frequently looked at pictures of faces first rather than objects, and this was compared to a group of children who played a similar version of the game without being rewarded for selecting faces.
Although the research is still ongoing, Dr Alvares said the results suggested this kind of training early in a child’s life may have the potential to improve their social behaviours in later years.
“We believe that difficulties in social development for kids with autism may be due to difficulties in visual attention that develop very early, within the first few years of life,”
“The results from this research may indicate that games could be used to help aspects of social skill development for children on the autism spectrum, such as understanding faces.”
