Empathy learning tools for children with autism spectrum disorders

Abstract

Empathy is considered in the article as an affective-cognitive phenomenon, the deficit of which characterizes autism spectrum disorders. Based on the definition of empathy as an integral socio-psychological phenomenon that combines emotional, cognitive and behavioral components, the authors revealed the main means of teaching empathy for children with signs of autism. Empathic abilities in children with autism were defined as the ability to understand and behaviorally respond to the emotional stimuli suggested by the researcher. An empirical study involved 24 children (accompanied by parents) aged 4 to 8 years, 13 of them had signs of autism, and 11 were identified as children with neurotypical development and lacking complex somatic diseases. Research hypothesis: the form and means of presenting emotional expressions affect the success of the assimilation (training) of the empathic reaction and differs in children with ASD and children with neurotypical development. Research methods: Standardized observation C.A.R.S (Childhood Autism Rating Scale) and an experiment for the diagnosis of mimic expression of children in static and dynamic forms. An analysis of the results allows us to draw the following conclusions: negative emotions are absorbed faster than positive ones in both groups of children; the dynamic presentation of an emotional stimulus is better differentiated by neurotypical children, but more complicated by children with signs of autism; emotions in schematic images are easier for children from a research group to recognize than in photos with people. The dynamic form of learning empathy achieves greater efficiency (increased attention concentration and less distraction) for children with signs of autism at multiplied repetition.