The paper on the 2007 Randomized Controlled Study of FaceSay has successfully completed the peer review process at the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (see the online version). Here's a quick excerpt from the abstract "The children with LFA demonstrated improvements in two areas of the intervention: emotion recognition and social interactions. The children with HFA demonstrated improvements in all three areas: facial recognition, emotion recognition, and social interactions. These findings, particularly the measured improvements to social interactions in a natural environment, are encouraging" 1 Comment Summary of Encouraging Research Results 10/06/2010
Four Randomized, Controlled Studies of FaceSay™ have been completed since 2007. The FaceSay participants, when compared to the control participants, demonstrated statistically significantly improvements in an impressive range of measures: Playground Interactions With Peers (an unmatched breakthrough) Standardized Emotion Recognition Tests (Ekman, NEPSY II) Standardized Face Recognition Tests (Benton) Theory of Mind Tests (NEPSY II) Parent Self Reports (SSRS) While still far from FDA-grade evidence, these results are unmatched by any Social Skills technology intervention for students with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. As part of her dissertation, Linda Rice, a School Psychologist for a California School District, conducted what is now the fourth Randomized, Placebo Controlled Study of my FaceSay Social Skills Software. The study included 32 high functioning students with an ASD (Kindergarten-5th). Half of the students were randomized to a lower dose FaceSay™ intervention, and the other half to the students' usual weekly computer lab activity, SuccessMaker®. The participants played these games in the computer lab for 25 minute sessions, once a week for 10 weeks. No touch screens were used. The children did not receive any social skills training in school. In prior studies, the FaceSay dosing was twice per week and included touch screens and participants were in private schools with special support for autistic students. Given the lower dose, and the more challenging environment, the outcomes were surprisingly good. The blinded playground observations, which were a breakthrough in Dr. Hopkins' study, were not significant, as I expected. The blinded Teacher reports (SRS) approached, but were not significant, similar to Dr. Hopkins' study (parent SSRS). As expected, the Emotion Recognition (NEPSY II Affect Recognition subscale) was statistically significant (p < .001). The big surprise for me was that the Theory of Mind measure (NEPSY II ToM subscale) was significant (p < .001). This is something we had not measured before and which was very encouraging, particularly given the combined lower dose and more challenging school environment. Dr. Maria Hopkins submitted a paper on her 2007 randomized controlled trial of FaceSay to a peer reviewed journal. It is actively under review ("noteworthy contribution" commented one reviewer). The paper is now online (Feb 2011) AN APPLICATION OF COMPUTER-BASED TRAINING ON EMOTION DISCRIMINATION IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM: A COMPARISON TO NON-COMPUTER-BASED TRAINING Scientific Advisors 01/15/2009
Dr. Matthew Goodwin, the Director of Clinical Research at the MIT Media Lab, and Associate Director of Research at the Groden Center, has kindly agreed to be a scientific advisor for studies of FaceSay. RCT of FaceSay's Gazing and Face Recognition games, w/ 60+ 4yo Neurotypical Head Start Students 05/06/2008
Trista Perez, a grad student at UAB, successfully defended her master's thesis, "Social Skills Training in a Head Start Population" this month. The was a randomized controlled trial with 60+ neurotypical preschool children. The group that played FaceSay's "Bandaid Clinic" game showed statistically significant improvements in the Benton Face Recognition test. o
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