Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl
the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects,
then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and
observations.
Today's article amused me because I recently got annoyed at the proliferation of emojis in modern text conversations, but this usage of them serves to unequivocally clarify communication, rather than complicate it. The idea was to make a universal "scale" for ranking things like foods or experiences. Using emojis, the scale would be useful in any culture where smiles mean "good" and frowns mean "bad." Because of the historical similarities in human psychology and the Westernization of the world, that is almost all of them.
The scale looks like this, and the comment's textual explanation of the scale is probably entirely unnecessary:
The researchers were really more going for a scale useful in any culture, regardless of language, worldwide, but this scale meant to rate products for businesses might also find a use for people with communication and language disabilities. For example, if a parent wants to gauge a kid's mood, or get a sense for their very favorite foods, they could use this scale to get a more nuanced response than simply "good," "OK" or "bad." It's a seven point scale, and the testing the researchers have done so far is consistent across age ranges in children.
Personally, I think it'd probably be helpful to teach all children to identify their moods based on something a bit more complicated than "good" "OK" and "bad." But maybe they automatically do that after a certain point in development, particularly now that emojis are so widespread. I don't think I made the differentiation ever, growing up. And unfortunately the answer to "how am I feeling?" was almost invariably "bad." It could have been the third on the left (kinda bad), there, instead of the leftmost (absolutely awful). Maybe, even, with that graphic for "OK," I might've chosen that some days.
Then, too, it's helpful for working with a child to know if a food is their most favorite food ever, or whether they just sort of like it. Since the children in the test used the entire scale to rate their experiences and opinions on foods, it would likely be similarly helpful for any child. Also, any adult with communication difficulties might make use of this scale to quickly give a nuanced opinion on a proposed course of action, a food, or their mood at the moment.
I'll be curious to see how this develops, and whether it makes it into educational systems or not. I'd certainly lobby for it to do so.
Today's article amused me because I recently got annoyed at the proliferation of emojis in modern text conversations, but this usage of them serves to unequivocally clarify communication, rather than complicate it. The idea was to make a universal "scale" for ranking things like foods or experiences. Using emojis, the scale would be useful in any culture where smiles mean "good" and frowns mean "bad." Because of the historical similarities in human psychology and the Westernization of the world, that is almost all of them.
The scale looks like this, and the comment's textual explanation of the scale is probably entirely unnecessary:
 |
| Most bad <----Bad------Kinda Bad-----OK---Kinda Good---Good----> Most Good |
The researchers were really more going for a scale useful in any culture, regardless of language, worldwide, but this scale meant to rate products for businesses might also find a use for people with communication and language disabilities. For example, if a parent wants to gauge a kid's mood, or get a sense for their very favorite foods, they could use this scale to get a more nuanced response than simply "good," "OK" or "bad." It's a seven point scale, and the testing the researchers have done so far is consistent across age ranges in children.
Personally, I think it'd probably be helpful to teach all children to identify their moods based on something a bit more complicated than "good" "OK" and "bad." But maybe they automatically do that after a certain point in development, particularly now that emojis are so widespread. I don't think I made the differentiation ever, growing up. And unfortunately the answer to "how am I feeling?" was almost invariably "bad." It could have been the third on the left (kinda bad), there, instead of the leftmost (absolutely awful). Maybe, even, with that graphic for "OK," I might've chosen that some days.
Then, too, it's helpful for working with a child to know if a food is their most favorite food ever, or whether they just sort of like it. Since the children in the test used the entire scale to rate their experiences and opinions on foods, it would likely be similarly helpful for any child. Also, any adult with communication difficulties might make use of this scale to quickly give a nuanced opinion on a proposed course of action, a food, or their mood at the moment.
I'll be curious to see how this develops, and whether it makes it into educational systems or not. I'd certainly lobby for it to do so.
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