The Intervention Study Of "Transporter" Technology On Empathy Deficiency In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

In order to study the intervention effect of "The Transporters" technology on empathy defect in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD)in mainland China,this study used experimental group-control group pre-test and post-test design,18 children(52 to 96 months)with ASD were matched according to their physiological age and Wechsler Intelligence.They were divided into three groups:ASD "The Transporters" intervention group(6 persons),ASD "Thomas" control group(6 persons)and ASD blank control group(6 persons).In order to know the Typical Development(TD)children's empathy level and task scores as a reference,according to the physiological age of ASD children,18 TD children were matched.Children in the ASD intervention group were treated with "The Transporters" technology.Two groups of ASD children were left,one group watched the prototype "Thomas"animation of "The Transporters",and the other group did not deal with it.The intervention lasted 6 weeks.Results:(1)The EQ-SQ-C,EQ,SQ score of ASD children is significantly lower than that of TD children.(2)In the empathy task,the pretest scores of ASD children were significantly lower than those of TD children,and after intervention,the ASD"The Transporters" group scored comparable to that of TD children,and was even significantly higher than TD children in emotional naming task scores.(3)The improved performance of ASD "The Transporters" group,which received the intervention,was significantly higher than that of the ASD "Thomas" group and the ASD blank control group.(4)There was no significant difference in the results before and after the intervention of "The Transporters" in emotional-situation attribution task(p>.050).(5)There is no significant difference between the post-test score and the follow-up score of the "The Transporters" intervention group for the tasks already mastered(p>.050).Conclusions:There is empathy defect in ASD children,and the intervention of"The Transporters" technology can effectively improve the empathy ability of ASD children.