Research On The Mind Reading Ability And Facial Expression Recognition Of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

To explore autism spectrum disorder children’s mental ability to read facial expressions with ability to recognize whether there is a connection,this study selected ToM Storybooks,facial expression image series test of children,and on this basis,using the eye movement technology,understand the autistic children recognize facial expressions,eye movement characteristics,provide suggestions for the further intervention training.The specific research contents and conclusions are as follows:Study I:Study on the relationship between mind reading ability and facial expression recognition in children with autism.In this study,29 autistic children and 31 typical development children were tested with ToM Storybooks and pictures of facial expressions,to understand their development level and development rules,to explore the relationship between the two.Then,based on the results of the study,the intervention training suggestions were proposed.A mixed experimental design of 2(group:typical development children and autistic children)*2(picture type:real person and cartoon)*3(facial expression type:happy,calm and sad)was adopted,in which group was the inter-group variable and picture type and facial expression type were the intra-group variables.The dependent variable is the accuracy rate of children’s facial expression recognition.The results show that:(1)children with autism have significant differences in mind reading ability compared with typical development children of the same age.(2)children with autism can recognize cartoon calmness,cartoon sadness,and real person’s calm facial expressions,which are significantly different from those of typical development children.There is no difference between the facial expressions of real person’s happy,real person’s sadness,and cartoon happy and typical development children.(3)there is a significant positive correlation between facial expression recognition and mind reading ability in autistic children.In addition,facial expression recognition is significantly correlated with the "truth-imagination distinction" and"desire" dimensions of mind reading ability.Study II:eye movement characteristics of facial expression recognition in autistic children.With the help of eye tracker,the eye movement track,fixation area and other eye movement data of autistic children were recorded to understand the characteristics of facial expression recognition.A mixed experimental design of 2(group:typical development children,children with autism)*2(picture type:real person,cartoon)*2(area of interest:mouth,eyes)*3(facial expression type:happy,calm,sad)was used.The same facial expression picture material was selected for children to watch,and the effective eye movement data of 24 autistic children and 30 typical development children were collected with the help of eye movement technology.The results show that:(1)there is a significant difference in the number of fixation counts in the whole facial expression picture between autistic children and typical development children,but there is no significant difference in the average fixation time and the first fixation time;In the area of interest(ROI)of facial expressions,the edge of group main effect was significant.In the first fixation time,the edge of the main effect of each group was significant.In terms of fixation time and number of fixation counts,the main effect of group was significant,the fixation time and number of fixation counts of the interest area of autistic children were significantly lower than that of typical development children.The main effect of interest area was significant,the number of fixation counts for autistic children and typical development children on the eyes is significantly higher than the mouth.the main effect of facial expression type was significant.The fixation time of autistic children and typical development children towards happiness,sadness and calm is reduced in turn.the interaction between picture type and interest area was significant,and the interaction between picture type,interest area and facial expression type was significant.Conclusion:(1)the mind reading ability and facial expression recognition ability of autistic children are both lower than that of typical development children of the same age,and there is a certain relationship between mind reading ability and facial expression recognition,but this relationship only exists in the early components of mind reading ability.(2)autistic children have attention preference for positive expressions represented by happy,which is the same as that of typical development children.When viewing pictures of facial expressions,they tend to focus their attention on the eyes,but the fixation time is lower than that of typical development children.(3)autistic children have the ability to detect and process facial expressions,but cannot use this ability to recognize facial expressions.