Some anecdotal evidence suggests that children do extrapolate from the videos to other situations.
Six-year-old Benjamin Hollman of New Paltz, N.Y., who is autistic, has been watching "The Transporters" since its U.S. release. A month after getting the video, his mother, Jessica Greenstein, noticed him paying more attention to emotions.
Benjamin now expresses his own emotions: sentiments such as "I don't like Sam," his younger brother. He also recognizes feelings in others: When his parents had a tiff, Benjamin noted his father was "mad at Mommy," Greenstein says
Scientists at the University of Hertfordshire, in Hatfield, England, are also using technology to help kids with autism spectrum disorder (particularly those who are low-functioning) develop social skills.
Among their efforts is KASPAR the robot -- short for Kinesics and Synchronisation in Personal Assistant Robotics. The child-sized robot appeals to autistic kids because it is not unpredictable like a real person, says Ben Robins, who leads the project.
KASPAR exhibits a few basic expressions, such as happy and sad. Its minimal expressions are less threatening than those of a real, complex human face, Robins believes. When autistic children meet KASPAR, they are often drawn to its face, mimicking its expression with their own, he says.
Robins hopes that after looking at the robot's simple expressions, and practicing making faces along with it, the kids will be more able to recognize those same expressions on people.
"The very fact that they're interested in exploring the facial expression, that's a huge step," Robins says. He hopes to start clinical studies of KASPAR's effectiveness soon.
Two ongoing studies at UCLA are also focused on face-to-face social engagement and facial expression recognition.
In a study, not yet published, UCLA researchers looked at the effects of Ritalin (methylphenidate) in children who have both autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. At a low dose of the drug -- lower than is normally used for ADHD -- the scientists found that children spent more time locking gazes with other people, indicating they were more socially engaged.
And Piggot is developing a Web-based facial-expression training program that uses video faces, just as "The Transporters" does. She expects her program to debut online in a few months.
Unlike the static pictures used in many similar training programs, faces that change over time more readily mimic real-world situations.
"A person's emotion changes in a split second," Baron-Cohen says. "If you have any delay in processing that information, it's gone very quickly."
Technology can help kids with autism, but parents should also take every real-life opportunity to engage their child with facial expressions, says Laurie Stephens, director of clinical services for Education Spectrum, an Altadena-based agency that provides therapy for kids with autism spectrum disorder.
"It can't just be learned through a computer program," she says. Parents should cue their kids to look at Mom or Dad's face to identify the emotion there.
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health@latimes.com
"The Transporters" is available at www.thetransporters.com. For information about participating in UCLA autism studies, visit www.autism.ucla.edu/files.
