The development and content validity of the emotional recognition memory training program (ERMTP) for children with autism spectrum disorder: A trial phase

Background: Facial expression, tone of voice, body language, and context are unrecognizable to children with autism. Emotional arousal and emotion recognition (required emotion empathy and cognitive processing empathy) induce downstream illnesses in children with ASD. Thus, the proposed study aimed to develop a computer-based Emotional Recognition Memory Training Program (ERMTP) for ASD. Objective: Firstly, to develop and validate the ERMTP for social cognitive abilities in children with ASD and secondly, to conduct pilot-tested it in typically developing children and children with ASD. Materials and methods: This study consisted of 3 phases. The first phase was developing the ERMTP from the literature review. The second phase was analyzed for content validity with five experts about Task 1 (two activities) and Task 2 (nine activities) comprising ERMTP. Computer-based learning of six fundamental facial emotions (happy, sad, angry, fear, disgusted, and surprised) improves social cognition. Finally, the pilot test was analyzed to discover the ERMTP’s challenges for five children with typical development and ASD. Results: The ERMTP’s activity items have good content validity, especially regarding clarity and relevance. All five raters gave the intervention a 1.0 IOC for its distinct components. In the training program, we followed the expert instructions regarding background music or voice and the generalization task. Descriptive analysis indicated that all five normal-developing children followed emotional expressions and instructions (100%). All five parents reported there were changes in focus and memory skills. Emotion regulation, memory abilities, and the social cognition index demonstrated statistically significant (p<0.05) effects before and after ERMTP treatment in ASD. Conclusion: ERMTP seeks to improve the social cognition of children with ASD by the use of feedback from both specialists and the children themselves. However, further research will be necessary to investigate ASD using a randomized control trial.