The EmotiPlay software developed in the ASC-Inclusion project helps autistic children understand and express emotions through facial expressions, tone-of-voice and body gestures. As a result, it will help to increase their inclusion in society.
The results show that autistic children improved on emotion recognition and socialisation after taking the intervention, suggesting the intervention was effective in helping children learn socio-emotional skills.
Those results echo the feedback from the parents of autistic children who were part of the intervention group:
- 78.9% of the parents noticed a positive change in their child’s behaviour and emotion related abilities;
- 95.2% of the parents said they would recommend Camp-exploration to other families.
Parents and children also provided valuable suggestions to further improve the environment which will be applied in the ongoing development of the environment.
This project was led by some of the top autism researchers, including Prof. Simon Baron-Cohen (Cambridge University, United Kingdom), Prof. Sven Bölte (Karolinska Institute, Sweden), and Prof. Ofer Golan (Bar Ilan University, Israel) together with Autism-Europe, and additional technology and autism specialists. It is a collaborative project among seven organisations across Europe, funded by the the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7, 2007-2013).
About the Seventh Framework Programme
The Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) was the European Union’s main instrument for funding research in Europe in the years 2007-2013. FP7 was the successor to the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) and was the result of years of consultation with the scientific community, research and policy making institutions, and other interested parties. The FP7 programme had a budget of 53.2 billion euros over its seven-year lifespan. Since their launch in 1984, the Framework Programmes have played a lead role in multidisciplinary research and cooperative activities in Europe and beyond.