Student`s Paper Award
Building Emotional Bridges: Teachers-Mediated Program to Support Children with Autism -
Ifat Bar. Dr. Ofer Golan, Prof. Sigal Eden, Bar-Ilan University
People with autism experience significant challenges in emotional understanding that is fundamental for social functioning, including difficulties in identifying emotions from nonverbal cues and social context, as well as deficits in emotional language expression. This study aimed to enhance emotional understanding among children with autism in special education classes through a teacher-mediated computer-based intervention program. The research included 116 children with autism (17 girls and 98 boys), aged 7-10, who were randomly assigned at the class level to either the intervention group (n=59), which participated in two computer-mediated lessons weekly for 22 weeks, or the control group (n=57), which continued with the standard special education curriculum. Pre- and post- intervention assessments measured participants' abilities to identify emotions from nonverbal cues, comprehend emotions in social contexts, and utilize expressive emotional language. Results demonstrated that the intervention group showed statistically significant improvements in emotion identification from non-verbal cues and social context, as well as enhanced emotional language capabilities compared to the control group. However, no significant improvement was observed for emotions not specifically addressed in the intervention program. The integration of such technology-mediated interventions within educational systems presents a promising approach for enhancing emotional and social development among students with autism. To the full paper