Assessment of the Emotional Sphere of Children with Typical Development and Autism Spectrum Disorders Based on an Interdisciplinary Approach

Abstract

The aim of the study is to reveal the features of the emotional sphere of children with typical development (TD) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) using the developed interdisciplinary methodological approach. The methodology includes two blocks – information about the development of the child (questionnaires for parents) and testing the child, containing tasks aimed at studying the manifestation of the emotional state in the characteristics of voice, speech, facial expressions, behavior and recognition by children of the emotional states of other people by voice and facial expression. The participants of the study were 70 children: 50 with TD and 20 with ASD. An audio and video recording of the speech, facial expressions and behavior of children during testing was made. Normative data were obtained – scores on questionnaires and scales, the results of psychophysiological testing of children. Differences between children with TD and ASD were determined according to the scales of the questionnaires: general information about development, the emotional sphere, additional information about child’s behavior; by scores in the test tasks for recognition and manifestation of emotions by children. The conducted study is the first step in the development of new fundamental approaches to the diagnosis, rehabilitation and education of children with atypical development using methods for automatically recognizing children’s emotional states by vocalizations, speech and facial expression.