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UK Government: The Transporters - a unique Government-backed DVD to
help children with Autism recognise emotions to go on sale world-wide
(M2 PressWIRE Via Acquire Media NewsEdge)
RDATE:01092008
A groundbreaking teaching resource to help children with autism make
sense of the world around them is to be marketed internationally,
following great success in the UK.
The Transporters, a DVD that uses a unique combination of real actors'
faces and 3D computer-generated settings, was originally available to
parents in the UK free as part of the DCMS funded Culture Online
programme.
But its runaway success, with 40,000 copies already distributed, means
it can now go on sale across the English-speaking world, with the
prospect of translation into other languages in the future. Many
families in the UK and living abroad were unable to get the DVD first
time round and this, along with pressure from parents of recently
diagnosed children who are desperate for help, created a demand which
the makers are keen to address. A substantial share of profits from
sales will go to autism charities and to research other scientifically
validated ways to help children with autism spectrum conditions.
The DVD pack, together with information about the underlying research
is available from a special website launched this week:
http://www.thetransporters.com.
The DVD Pack, which is narrated by Stephen Fry, consists of 15 five
minute animated stories, 30 interactive quizzes and a booklet to help
parents and carers get the most out of the series. It aims to help
children with autism recognise and understand different facial
expressions by superimposing real faces (which the children normally
find confusing because of their unpredictability) on vehicles such as
trains, trams and cable cars which all have highly predictable
movement. This predictability appeals to children with autism.
The DVD provides children with autism a setting that is designed to
appeal to them, in which to learn about simple emotions such as happy,
sad, angry and afraid, as well as more complex ones like sorry, tired,
joking and unfriendly. The DVD has been carefully tested with children
with autism and results show that it is an effective way to teach
emotion. Following a four-week period of watching the DVD for 15
minutes a day, children with high-functioning autism caught up with
typically developing children of the same age in their performance on
emotion recognition tasks.
Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre at
the University of Cambridge who helped develop The Transporters said:
"Our aim is to help children with autism or Asperger Syndrome, who have
disabling social difficulties, to recognise emotional expressions and
how emotions relate to social interaction. This is the first time I've
seen high-quality broadcast animation techniques used to produce a
series expressly for children on the autistic spectrum."
Jane Asher, President of the National Autistic Society UK said:
"This is such a wonderful initiative and is going to make a huge
difference to the lives of some very vulnerable children. Both the
concept and execution The Transporters are excellent. Having worked in
the field of autism for over 25 years, I know that a sensitive approach
like this is just what's needed."
Culture Minister Margaret Hodge added:
"Culture and emotion are inextricable. That's why I'm delighted that
the Government has been able to support The Transporters. Of course I'm
proud too that UK creative talent, technical ingenuity and meticulous
research should have created something so valuable that we can now
offer to the rest of the world."
Notes to Editors
1. Culture Online was set up by the DCMS in 2002. Originally intended
to be a two-year programme, it was subsequently extended for a further
two years. With the initial remit to demonstrate how technology could
be used creatively to engage new audiences, Culture Online commissioned
26 interactive projects, which have won 25 major industry awards.
2. One of the projects originally commissioned by Culture Online was
The Transporters, a DVD project designed to help children aged 2 - 8
with autism and Asperger Syndrome to recognise facial expressions and
the emotions that underlie them. This is something that such children
find exceedingly hard to do - it is a problem for them and for the
people around them. The project was led by an Executive Producer and
Development Producer within the DCMS and was a collaboration between
the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University, the National
Autistic Society and an animation company. Based on a sound
understanding of the autistic mind, a series of 15, 5 minute episodes
featuring animated vehicles with real human faces were created, along
with carefully constructed interactive quizzes and a substantial
booklet for parents and carers. There are eight characters, all toy
vehicles with their own personalities and function. They are part of a
toy set in a child's bedroom, an environment that is designed to be
predictable (since children with autism love predictability) but not
distracting. Each character has a real human (rather than a cartoon)
face to make it easier for children to transfer their learning into
real life. Children with autism tend to love vehicles. In particular,
children with autism love vehicles that move predictably - like trams,
cable cars and trains. They tend to dislike objects that move
unpredictably. With The Transporters, children who don't naturally want
to look at real people's unpredictable faces are encouraged to do so
because they are "grafted" onto beautifully predictable, attractive
vehicles.
3. The Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University is
internationally recognised for its pioneering approaches to
understanding the causes of autism spectrum conditions and developing
novel, scientifically evaluated methods for detecting and helping
people with these conditions. The Transporters was based on an idea
from the Director of the Autism Research Centre, and is based on the
hyper-systemizing theory of autism (the idea that the brain in people
with autism spectrum conditions is strongly tuned to notice predictable
patterns in the world, and has difficulty with information that is not
easily systemizable, such as social interactions and emotions). The
Autism Research Centre also carried out a scientific trial of The
Transporters, the results of which were presented at the International
Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR), London, 2008.
4. Changing Media Development Ltd creates and distributes products to
help children with autism and other cognitive development conditions
such as dyslexia. The company bases its work on good science and prides
itself on its ability to translate the latest research into captivating
experiences, using traditional media and new technologies.
The individuals who comprise the company have won many international
awards for their media, technical and scientific work for
public-service projects. Changing Media Development Ltd will give 25%
of its profit from the sale of this DVD pack to autism charities.
Another 25% will pay for further research to develop new ways to help
children with autism and related conditions. Information about The
Transporters, as well as information about the research that
underpinned its development and biographies of key staff are available
at http://www.thetransporters.com
((M2 Communications Ltd disclaims all liability for information
provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties.
Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at
http://www.presswire.net on the world wide web. Inquiries to
info@m2.com)).
Copyright ? 2008 M2 Communications Ltd.
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