Using Animal Filters to Help Kids with Autism Identify Emotions

This study looked at whether the use of animal filters—or “anthropomorphic” stimuli—could help adolescents (12–17) with autism recognize and interpret emotions. The participants matched emotion words (angry, sad, afraid, happy, or surprised) to either photos of faces or the same photos with animal filters over them, like, this:

Fun! The best part is, the animal filters made a big difference: the kids were significantly more accurate in matching when the animal filter was present (specifically, for “happy” and “angry”). Based on findings from previous research, the authors speculated that the animal filters may have increased the kids’ social interest and motivation, making it easier for them to focus on and correctly identify emotions. The variability in cognitive and social functioning among kids with ASD makes finding appropriate evidence-based interventions challenging, so it’s great that this activity could theoretically work for a whole range of clients. The researchers make it really easy to replicate this activity for your clients, too. The images they used are freely available for research purposes, but it would be just as easy to use your own photos or stock photos that you find online.

Cross, L., Farha, M., & Atherton, G. (2019). The animal in me: Enhancing emotion recognition in adolescents with autism using animal filters. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. doi:10.1007/s10803-019-04179-7