A gesture-controlled serious game for teaching emotion recognition skills to preschoolers with autism

The recognition of facial expressions is important for the perception of emotions. Understanding emotions is essential in human communication and social interaction. Children with autism have been reported to exhibit deficits in the recognition of affective expressions. With the appropriate intervention, elimination of those deficits can be achieved. Interventions are proposed to start as early as possible. Computer-based programs have been widely used with success to teach people with autism to recognize emotions. However, those computer interventions require considerable skills for interaction. Such abilities are beyond very young children with autism as they have major restriction in their ability to interact with computers. Our approach takes account of the specific characteristics of preschoolers with autism and their physical inabilities. By creating an educational computer game which provides physical interaction, we aim to support early intervention and to foster emotion learning.