The Transporters - a
unique Government-backed DVD to help children with Autism recognise
emotions to go on sale world-wide
DEPARTMENT FOR
CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT News Release (089\2008) issued by The
Government News Network on 1 September 2008
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
Public enquiries 020 7211 6200
http://www.culture.gov.uk
2-4 Cockspur Street
London SW1Y 5DH
http://www.culture.gov.uk