FaceSay™ is a promising new adjunct intervention with surprisingly good empirical data. In a Randomized Controlled Study of FaceSay™ with 49 autistic students, both HFA and LFA students improved on 4 out of 5 outcome measures (see attachment). This is pretty good news from a good study (submitted). The really big news is that in blinded observations on the normal school playground, the students showed improved interactions with their peers. This is something that after a decade of trying, no other technology based intervention has been able to show.
FaceSay targets "upstream", pivotal skills such as
Even further "upstream", FaceSay teaches awareness of the features and movements of the face, particularly around the eyes. FaceSay leverages the perceptual and cognitive strengths of autistic students, to help them experience the value of attending to the face. As an 11yo study participant told an interviewer a year after the study, "I learned I need to look at both halves of the face. I've been looking at just the bottom half, at the mouth."
FaceSay is a low burden, high fidelity and high impact adjunct to any existing school based social skills programs. The three unique (patent pending :-) ) and silly games are something high functioning students as young as 5 will gladly play, with little and often no instruction. Your Staff do not require training in any technology or new instructional techniques. In your school labs or as an independent activity in your classrooms, FaceSay can be played as little as twice a week for 30 minutes. The impressive results in the RCT came after just 6 hours of play over 12 sessions. We believe more sessions through the school year will provide even stronger results.