Amélioration de la reconnaissance et de l’imitation d’expressions faciales chez des enfants autistes grâce à une présentation visuelle et sonore ralentie

Abstract: An increasing amount of studies have demonstrated the existence of visual, auditive and motion integration deficit in individuals with autism, especially when movement is rapid. Since visual motion is intrinsically involved in social interactions through movements of the body and face, visual motion processing deficit could therefore account for their verbal and non-verbal comprehension and social interaction disorders. Besides, other studies have revealed the existence of speech integration deficit in this population which could also account for their verbal comprehension deficits. The aim of our study is to test whether slowing down sound flow and facial movement enhance facial recognition and imitation by autistic children compared to normal control children. Results show that a slow dynamic presentation enhances recognition and imitation of facial expressions by autistic children. Our perspective is to elaborate software that could simultaneously slow down facial movements and speech flow, and to assess its impact on the comprehension of words and instructions by autistic children. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]