Created by Symbionica L.L.C., FaceSay is an interactive program that provides practice in facial recognition. It is geared toward children aged 4 to 12 who are diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Depending on the abilities of the children, it can be used with teenagers. Children with ASD can practice recognizing expressions by looking for facial clues such as eye gazes or shapes of the mouth. Often children with ASD do not have the ability to look at the entire face to help read emotions. These games are set up to teach them to look at the eyes, nose, and mouth when trying to read a face and improve communication.
A study at the University of Alabama at Birmingham found that children with Asperger Syndrome who used FaceSay improved their ability to practice joint attention with the eyes (following a gaze), awareness of facial expressions, and face recognition. Children with autism who were involved in the study showed a slower rate of improvement. Both groups did however show improvement in being able to recognize emotions. The children in the test group used the program twice a week for six weeks for twenty minutes each session. Hopkins and Biasini tested 24 children with Asperger Syndrome and 25 children with autism. The children were between the ages of 6 and 15.
Scores on Facial Recognition Test
- Children with autism averaged a mean score of 14.8 of facial recognition tests. The focus group of autistic children averaged 12.8.
- Children with Asperger Syndrome scored an average of 18.4, compared to 15.4 by the control group.
Scores of Emotion Recognition Test
- Children with autism scored an average of 6.53. The control group scored an average of 5.2.
- Children with Asperger Syndrome scored an average of 8.7, while the control group scored 6.79.
Source: University of Alabama at Birmingham (2007, June 23). Computer Game Helps Autistic Children Recognize Emotions. ScienceDaily.
Reading the study above, it seems like this program serves its purpose and does improve the ability of children with ASD to recognize and draw attention to the eyes. I downloaded the free 30-day demo version of the program and share the following observations.
The voice used in the program is robotic sounding, and my non-disabled children who are 8 and 11, found the voice to be strange. A video clip from the game is available for you to see for yourself how it works. The graphics are weak and not very appealing. It does use the child's name during the game, which engages a child even more as they hear their name spoken by the animals who directs them in the various games. Casey Wimsatt, the owner/inventor of the program, contacted me and shared that children with an ASD find the games appealing and silly. There is a TV interview with one of the students using and responding to the program. Casey said that the minimal graphics and monotone voice are designed to help children with an ASD engage and focus, particularly on the eyes.
The demo that I downloaded only gave access to the easiest games that practice the most basic skills. When a student gets an answer incorrect the game will replay the same question until it is answered correctly, reinforcing the skill even further. The following games were included in the demo version:
- The first game's objective was to observe the eyes of a woman and gauge where she was looking. The student clicks on the number or image that the woman is looking at.
- "Band Aid Clinic" addresses the student as if they were a doctor and asks them to choose a band aid that would heal the part of the face that was either distorted or discolored. It highlights either the eyes, nose, or mouth area in the image. The student chooses from either an image of eyes, a nose, or mouth. The choices were not always in order from top to bottom in the more challenging stages. The doctor angle was a bit of a stretch since you were really just matching the facial images on the left with those blurred on the face in the right.
- The third game in the demo was called "Follow the Leader" and it asked the student to match two faces. Looking at the leader's face, the student clicks "yes" if the second face matched the leader's face and "no" if there was not a match. The "yes" button was green and the "no" button was red to help visually distinguish the two for non-readers. Some of the differences were very subtle and I even got some wrong! The differences would be seen in the eyes, nose, and mouth, allowing ASD children to study all three. In a more challenging part of the game, one face was shown with a particular expression, focusing on the eyes. The student had to use an arrow to move the eyes up or down on a second photo so that it matched the first. The movement was pretty forgiving and it was easy to manipulate.
These types of programs can prove invaluable to educators and parents when it comes to improving the social skills of children with ASD. For $249 you can buy a license that will allow 5 students to access the program. A home edition is expected to cost $80 for one child, but is still unavailable. I would like to see the company upgrade the technical side of the program, but the skill building provided makes it worth the purchase price.