The Effect of “the Transporters” Intervention Program on the Expression of Empathy during Social Interaction in Children with ASD

Background: Children with ASD often struggle to express concern towards others’ distress and to provide instrumental support to others’ need. However, the behavioral examination of these abilities in children with ASD during social interaction has been limited.

Various intervention programs attempted to target cognitive empathy deficits in children with ASD. The Transporters (TT) animated series is such an intervention that was found to be effective in several controlled trials. However, the generalization of its taught skills and their expression in social interactions were not studied.

Objectives: (1) to examine the differences between children with ASD and their typically developing (TD) peers on empathic concern and provision of support during social interaction; (2) to examine the effects using TT intervention has on the empathic and pro-social behaviors during social interaction in children with ASD.

Methods: To examine question (1), two groups of 4-7 years-old children, 37 (9 girls) with ASD and 28 (5 girls) TD children, matched on age, gender and cognitive abilities, were recruited. Question (2) was examined with twenty 4-7 year olds (2 girls) with ASD who watched TT daily for 8 weeks. They were compared to a matched group of 22 participants (6 girls) with ASD, who watched a control series. Children were presented with two empathy prompts during a 20-minute play schedule: a pain paradigm (e.g., the experimenter allegedly bit by a mosquito); and a help paradigm (e.g., the experimenter allegedly fails to find the toys for the next activity). For the examination of the second research question, participants undertook similar activities before and after 8 weeks of watching the series. Interactions were video-recorded and micro-analytically coded for children’s affect, gaze direction, verbal response, assistive behaviors, as well as ignoring and freezing.

Results: Children with ASD exhibited less adaptive empathic responses, compared to their TD peers. During the pain paradigm, as a reaction to the experimenter’s distress, participants in the ASD group expressed positive affect for a longer duration, compared to the TD group. In addition, the ASD group exhibited freezing or ignoring behaviors for longer duration, compared to the TD group. In both pain and help paradigms, The TD group exhibited more adaptive assistance behaviors that the ASD group.

An examination of the effect of TT intervention on the pain paradigm, revealed that following the intervention, children from TT group increased their verbal responses to the experimenter and decreased their ignoring and freezing behaviors. No such change was observed in the control group. In addition, following the intervention, children from TT group increased the time they spent looking at their interaction peer, and effect that was not found in participants who watched the control series.

Conclusions: Our findings show children with ASD demonstrate empathic response deficits in an ecological social scenario. In addition, the study provides support for the effectiveness of TT in promoting pro-social behaviors in children with ASD, including a shift from a passive to a more active stance, an enhanced search for social cues in others’ faces.