Mu-musicplay: How the Interactive Use of Games and Music Influence the Capacity of Autistic Children to Recognize Emotions in Videos and Music

Abstract

It is difficult for autistic children to assess other people emotions and social behavior by observing non-verbal social cues, making the situation challenging to respond in a socially appropriate manner. Therefore, by utilizing the indirect means of contextual game and musical interactions in a group setting blended with social contexts from videos, autistic children may be able to gain better understanding of certain social cues and contexts. In this paper, computer programs utilized to design a game called “Mu-musicplay” and conduct social-context interaction to help children recognize and better identify emotions and social scenarios. This study was carried-out with three non-autistic children of age five as the subjects to obtain a baseline and foundation for a future study with autistic children. Results indicates that, while playing a game in which the children tried to recognize emotions from videos and music, they were better able to complete their task with the help of verbal guidance.