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Teaching Children with Autism to Recognize Faces

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Comprehensive Guide to Autism

Abstract

Faces have immense importance for social interactions. Faces convey information about our intentions, our identity, and our emotional state. Although most people recognize faces effortlessly with little or no forethought, children and adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) struggle with their face recognition skills. Studies have shown that unlike typically developed children, children with ASD do not readily orient and attend to faces in the environment. Even when they are attending to a face, children with ASD tend not to look at the eyes and are more likely to miss information about the identity and emotional state of a person. In addition, children with ASD tend to analyze a face in terms of its individual parts (e.g., eyes, nose, mouth) rather than integrating the individual features into a holistic face memory. If children with autism lack basic skills in face processing, it is not surprising that they would experience difficulty in everyday interactions that depend heavily on the perceptual understanding of facial cues. Recently, computer-based methods, such as the Face Expertise Training and Let’s Face It! (LFI!) program, have been developed to improve the face processing skills of children with ASD. These programs assume that the perceptual skills involved in face recognition can be acquired and improved through systematic training. Results from these programs have been proven effective in teaching children with ASD how to recognize facial identity. Moreover, the development of new technologies, such as touch screen tablets and virtual reality systems, is promising for improving the face processing of children with ASD.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, 3800 Finnerty Road, Victoria, BC, Canada

    Buyun Xu & James W. Tanaka

Authors
  1. Buyun Xu
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  2. James W. Tanaka
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Correspondence to Buyun Xu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Westminster, Faculty of Science & Technology, London, United Kingdom

    Vinood B. Patel

  2. Nutritional Sciences Division and Genomics Centre, King's College London, London, United Kingdom

    Victor R. Preedy

  3. Faculty of Society and Health, Buckinghamshire New University, Middlesex, United Kingdom

    Colin R. Martin

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Xu, B., Tanaka, J.W. (2014). Teaching Children with Autism to Recognize Faces. In: Patel, V., Preedy, V., Martin, C. (eds) Comprehensive Guide to Autism. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4788-7_56

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4788-7_56

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-4787-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-4788-7

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