A New AI Framework to Support Social-Emotional Skills and Emotion Awareness in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

This research highlights the importance of Emotion Aware Technologies (EAT) and their implementation in serious games to assist children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in developing social-emotional skills. As AI is gaining popularity, such tools can be used in mobile applications as invaluable...

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Main Authors: Andrea La Fauci De Leo, Pooneh Bagheri Zadeh, Kiran Voderhobli, Akbar Sheikh Akbari
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-07-01
Series:Computers
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-431X/14/7/292
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author Andrea La Fauci De Leo
Pooneh Bagheri Zadeh
Kiran Voderhobli
Akbar Sheikh Akbari
author_facet Andrea La Fauci De Leo
Pooneh Bagheri Zadeh
Kiran Voderhobli
Akbar Sheikh Akbari
author_sort Andrea La Fauci De Leo
collection DOAJ
description This research highlights the importance of Emotion Aware Technologies (EAT) and their implementation in serious games to assist children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in developing social-emotional skills. As AI is gaining popularity, such tools can be used in mobile applications as invaluable teaching tools. In this paper, a new AI framework application is discussed that will help children with ASD develop efficient social-emotional skills. It uses the Jetpack Compose framework and Google Cloud Vision API as emotion-aware technology. The framework is developed with two main features designed to help children reflect on their emotions, internalise them, and train them how to express these emotions. Each activity is based on similar features from literature with enhanced functionalities. A diary feature allows children to take pictures of themselves, and the application categorises their facial expressions, saving the picture in the appropriate space. The three-level minigame consists of a series of prompts depicting a specific emotion that children have to match. The results of the framework offer a good starting point for similar applications to be developed further, especially by training custom models to be used with ML Kit.
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series Computers
spelling doaj-art-136a87559ea2490599e8a32b8f5121ad2025-08-20T03:58:30ZengMDPI AGComputers2073-431X2025-07-0114729210.3390/computers14070292A New AI Framework to Support Social-Emotional Skills and Emotion Awareness in Children with Autism Spectrum DisorderAndrea La Fauci De Leo0Pooneh Bagheri Zadeh1Kiran Voderhobli2Akbar Sheikh Akbari3James Graham Building, Leeds Beckett University, Church Wood Ave, Leeds LS6 3QS, UKJames Graham Building, Leeds Beckett University, Church Wood Ave, Leeds LS6 3QS, UKJames Graham Building, Leeds Beckett University, Church Wood Ave, Leeds LS6 3QS, UKJames Graham Building, Leeds Beckett University, Church Wood Ave, Leeds LS6 3QS, UKThis research highlights the importance of Emotion Aware Technologies (EAT) and their implementation in serious games to assist children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in developing social-emotional skills. As AI is gaining popularity, such tools can be used in mobile applications as invaluable teaching tools. In this paper, a new AI framework application is discussed that will help children with ASD develop efficient social-emotional skills. It uses the Jetpack Compose framework and Google Cloud Vision API as emotion-aware technology. The framework is developed with two main features designed to help children reflect on their emotions, internalise them, and train them how to express these emotions. Each activity is based on similar features from literature with enhanced functionalities. A diary feature allows children to take pictures of themselves, and the application categorises their facial expressions, saving the picture in the appropriate space. The three-level minigame consists of a series of prompts depicting a specific emotion that children have to match. The results of the framework offer a good starting point for similar applications to be developed further, especially by training custom models to be used with ML Kit.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-431X/14/7/292Autism Spectrum DisorderSerious GamesAndroidAICloud Vision
spellingShingle Andrea La Fauci De Leo
Pooneh Bagheri Zadeh
Kiran Voderhobli
Akbar Sheikh Akbari
A New AI Framework to Support Social-Emotional Skills and Emotion Awareness in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Computers
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Serious Games
Android
AI
Cloud Vision
title A New AI Framework to Support Social-Emotional Skills and Emotion Awareness in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
title_full A New AI Framework to Support Social-Emotional Skills and Emotion Awareness in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
title_fullStr A New AI Framework to Support Social-Emotional Skills and Emotion Awareness in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
title_full_unstemmed A New AI Framework to Support Social-Emotional Skills and Emotion Awareness in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
title_short A New AI Framework to Support Social-Emotional Skills and Emotion Awareness in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
title_sort new ai framework to support social emotional skills and emotion awareness in children with autism spectrum disorder
topic Autism Spectrum Disorder
Serious Games
Android
AI
Cloud Vision
url https://www.mdpi.com/2073-431X/14/7/292
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