Background: Emotions are vital indicators of the psycho-physiological state of humans and can greatly help in improving intelligent healthcare services. In children with autism there is significant impairment in recognizing and understanding basic facial emotions and prototypical feelings This “Emotional misunderstanding” directly affects social interaction.

Objectives: The aim of the study is to investigate three emotion-related constructs in children with ASD, namely: emotion recognition, emotional regulation and understanding of emotions, and to carry out training aimed at increasing knowledge of emotions and learning useful techniques for controlling negative feelings such as fear, anger and anxiety.

Methods: Eighteen subjects (15 males and 3 females) aged between 13 and 18 years participated in the research (mean age = 15.2; ds = 1.44) with severe (No.9) or moderate (No.9) disability at Developmental Disability Child Global Assessment Scale (DD-CGAS).
The special training program educator mediated, consisted in twenty weekly sessions each lasting approximately two hours, conducted using two protocols inspired by Rational Emotional Therapy of Albert Ellis: “Exploring Feelings”, and “The ABC of my emotions: socio-affective literacy program” .
The training aimed at enhancing the knowledge of the main emotions and learning effective cognitive strategies to overcome and manage negative thoughts and moods, aiming to increase pleasant ones in everyday life.
The Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC) was applied before and after the training program.

Results: The training program was associated to a significant improvement of the Total score of TEC, which increased from (mean(SD)) 4.27( 2.21) to 5.33 ( 2.40); p< 0.001; with an effect size of 0.45. Most participants (15 out of 18) showed a positive change in the TEC total score. The magnitude of score change was higher in the severe disability group with a 47.6% improvement (from 2.33 to 3.44 ) in comparison with moderate disability group, with a 16% improvement ( from 6.22 to 7.22).

Conclusions: An intensive training educator mediated based on Rational Emotional Therapy seems effective in improving emotion comprehension in adolescent with autism, especially in those with severe disability. These evidences support the planning of a randomized study.

Notes:

(1)Autism Research Unit, Villa Santa Maria SCS, Tavernerio, Como, Italy, (2)Autism Research Unit, Villa Santa Maria SCS, Tavernerio, Italy