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Special DVD is on track to help autistic children deal with people's emotions

An animation DVD featuring vehicles with human faces has helped a group of autistic children make significant improvements in their ability to identify emotions such as anger, surprise or sadness. A clinical trial at the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University involving 40 children aged between four and seven found that it took only four weeks for those with high-functioning autism who watched the cartoons for 15 minutes a day to catch up with typically developing children of the same age in their emotional recognition skills.

A clinical trial at the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University involving 40 children aged between four and seven found that it took only four weeks for those with high-functioning autism who watched the cartoons for 15 minutes a day to catch up with typically developing children of the same age in their emotional recognition skills.

The 'Transporters' DVD, launched by Professor Simon Baron-Cohen of the Autism Research Centre and culture minister David Lammy, is the result of a project funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to find new ways to help children with autism learn about emotion. The series of 15, five-minute episodes is aimed at children aged two to eight, with each episode focusing on a different human emotion.

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