Emotional Face Recognition Training on Parental Competence in Children with Autism

Background and Objectives: Disability to recognize an emotional state is one of the most important behavioral problems in children with autism severely affects their interactions and consequently their parents' parental competence. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of emotional states on parental competence in children with autism. Materials and Methods: The present study is a clinical trial study. Autistic children with autism were block randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Children in the intervention group received ten 45-minute training sessions using 40 images related to four states of happiness, sadness, anger, and fear. Mothers in both groups completed the questionnaires at the beginning and one day after the intervention. Results: Emotional state training has improved parental competence in the intervention group. Also, there was a statistically significant difference in the total and dimensional score of parental competence between the two groups (P< 0.001). Conclusions: Teaching emotional states to children with autism improved parental competence in mothers. Accordingly, it is suggested that facial education be placed in the educational priorities of these children.