The Transporters DVD Series teaches Emotions to children with Autism

The Transporters is a DVD series that was developed to help children with Autism learn to recognize and understand emotions. The series was developed in the UK by Professor Simon Baron-Cohen from the Autism Research Center at Cambridge University and has been available in the UK for several years. In January 2009, it became available in the US and can be purchased at http://www.transporters.com/ for $57.50 with a portion of the proceeds going to Autism charities and research.

My son, Alex, who is 8 and on the autism spectrum has been a huge fan of Thomas the Tank engine since he was oh... 2 years old or so. In fact, many children with autism tend to gravitate towards these train toys and the Thomas animated series. The Transporters capitalizes on this by taking a series about transportation vehicles (Train Cars, Trolleys, etc) and putting real human faces on the front of them. The series is aimed at children ages 2-8 years old and it is suggested to watch for 15 minutes a day will mark improvement in your child's understanding of emotions. The DVD has 15 five minute episodes on it, 30 quizzes, and a parents guide (booklet).
We were given a copy of The Transporters for him to test out and try.

After having the DVD for just over a month, I'm here to share the results:

First I think that the concept is genius - infusing real faces with emotions on "Thomas-like" trains.. great idea. The similarities to Thomas The Tank Engine are pretty obvious: Narrated episodes telling stories/adventures of brightly colored trains (and friends). The stories are short, just 5 minutes and each one illustrates a lesson of sorts. The Transporters even has a #1 train (Charlie) that is Blue... like Thomas the #1 Engine. The fact that episodes all start out the same in the child's room with him going off to school and then the trains coming to life - appeals to my son's love of all things repetitious and the same.

After watching an episode you can then use the DVD remote to navigate and Easy or Hard Quiz. Samples are available online. Here's a video of the kids taking one of the "easy" quizzes after an episode:


Left to his own devices my son would watch the entire 75 minutes DVD in a single sitting, preferring to use the "Play All" option (skipping the quizzes) vs picking out the single episodes. When given the choice to view single episodes he gravitated to picking ones that dealt with the emotions of Happy or Surprised verses anything sad. This is reflective of my son's positive outlook on life - whenever he draws people he always draws them with smiles.

The suggested age group of 2-8 years old needs to be taken with a grain of salt, bearing in mind that kids on the autism spectrum each have their own strengths. My son, just turned 8 years old and though he loves Thomas trains - I think I'm happy to report that he is perhaps beyond the level of The Transporters. He aced the quizzes for the episodes on the first try even on the hard setting. Still, I can see where this series would have been a huge assistance to him when he was younger - around 4 or 5 years old. My just turned 4 year old daughter, who does not have autism really enjoys the Transporters and has gotten more out of the series teaching about emotions. So, I can see where this series really can benefit all children and not just those with autism.

A few observations about The Transporters where I felt there is some room for improvement would be: 1) the characters have "voices" of their own but their mouths don't move. I am not sure if this was a deliberate decision, instead allowing kids to focus on the facial expression verses the mouth movement - but I found it distracting to watch the voices coming out of mouths that didn't move. 2)While I can appreciate that the faces they picked represented varying ages and ethnicity- I wish they had chosen mouths with better dental hygiene. Perhaps there will be a future episode of The Transporters going to the The Dentist - another hurdle many families with autism (including us) struggle with. Lastly, and the biggest 'issue' we had with The Transporters is no fault of the series but rather that my son is so "stuck" on Thomas and the way that the Thomas engines look that he had a hard time with the attachment of the "heads" on The Transporters and even said he wanted to cut them off with scissors. I tried to get him to talk to me about this (as I found it disturbing) but he wouldn't elaborate - all I can guess is he prefers the flatter faces of the Thomas engines over these.

Here's video of how he feels:



In closing, though my son had some issues with The Transporters - I believe this series could absolutely help kids learn to recognize emotions. The price of $57.50 is a bit high for a kids DVD (though it does include a 25% donation to Autism charities & research) so be sure to view the free online episodes first to see if this something your child would watch.

Related Links:
http://www.thetransporters.com/ - Learn More, View Episodes, Purchase the video
The Transporters Promote Emotions - Autism Spectrum Disorders at Bella Online
Meet the Transporters - Autism Hangout Interview with Dr. Simon Baron Cohen
Learn "How it Works" - interview with Dr. Simon Baron Cohen
View 1 Minute Clip of Transporters Barney's Special Day Episode
View Full Episode #1 of The Transporters