Exploring the Effects of Augmented Reality on the Emotion Recognition Skills of Autistic Children

Autistic children have significant difficulties in recognizing and labeling emotions, difficulties which may hinder the natural development of their ability to express and regulate further emotions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of an augmented reality emotion recognition program (ARERP) delivered in a group format on the emotion recognition of young autistic children. This study employed a concurrent multiple probe design across behaviors to evaluate the effects of the training on children’s emotion recognition. The target behavior was recognizing three emotion sets: positive, negative, and complex. The sequence of conditions included pre-test, baseline, training, post-test, and follow-up sessions. Positive results were found across all four children who all achieved 100% accuracy in identifying emotions during the training. Further, the emotion recognition skills were successfully maintained for 4–7 weeks post-training, with observed generalization to untrained still pictures and GIFs. This study provides preliminary evidence supporting the effectiveness of AR-based group training for young autistic children.