Zirkus Empathico – Promoting socioemotional competencies in 5- to 10-year-old children with autism spectrum conditions using a computer-based training program

Zirkus Empathico – Promoting socioemotional competencies in 5- to 10-year-old children with autism spectrum conditions using a computer-based training program - Zirkus Empathico

Status

Active, not recruiting

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Interventional

Source

DRKS

Registry ID

DRKS00009337

Enrollment

Registered

2015-12-03

Start date

2015-12-05

Completion date

Unknown

Last updated

2025-04-07

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

autism/Asperger-Syndrom/pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS)/autism spectrum disorder F84

Interventions

Group 1: Treatment group (TG) - 5 to 10 year old children with the diagnosis autism/Asperger-Syndrom/pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS)/autism spectrum disorder receiv

see publication for further information). An adult caretaker will train as a tutor for 6 weeks with the child and the app in their everyday environment. The training consists of 100min training per we

http://www.unserkoerper.de/, http://www.pedalpiraten.de/startseite.html

http://www.klingklangland.com/index.html

http://www.multiverso.de/game/

http://www.lernspass-fuer-kinder.de/

http://www.isungur.de/). An adult caretaker will play the games with the child for 100min per week over 6 weeks in their everyday environment. The caretaker receives weekly supervision via phone and a

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

All

Age

5 Years to 10 Years

Inclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria: Clinical diagnosis (ICD 10/DSM 5) Asperger-Syndrom / Kanner Autism / Pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) / autism spectrum disorder; chronological age: 5 – 10 years 11 month at the start of the training; no or stable psychopharmacotherapy

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion criteria: nonverbal IQ <=70 (Coloured progressive matrices intelligence test. Raven, Bulheller & Häcker, 2001) non-sufficient level of receptive language (verbal age < 5;0 Jahre; Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test - Revision 4, German Adaption. Lenhard, Lenhard, Segerer & Suggate, 2015); psychopathological comorbidity (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, social phobia,major depression with suicidal intentions, personality disorder), severe aggressive/autoaggressive behaviour which may hamper the training massively; neurological disorder (exception: well-treated epilepsy); other disorders/illnesses which may hamper the intervention; parallel participation in group-based social competence training; parallel participation in other clinical studies.

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame
1. Training component emotional empathy: Griffith Empathy Measure – GEM; German adaption (Dadds, et al., 2008, Greimel, Schulte-Rüther, Kamp-Becker, Remschmidt, Herpertz-Dahlmann, & Konrad, 2011). The parent questionnaire GEM measures in 23 items mostly the emotional empathy of children and teenagers. 2. Training component cognitive empathy: The computer-based emotion recognition test KERMIT (Kids Emotion Recognition Multiple Images Task, Drimalla, Kirst & Dziobek, in prep.) measures the emotion recognition accuracy and speed using photographies of basic emotions. Both instruments will be used in the pre- (T1) and post-assessment (T2, after 6 weeks training) as well as in the 3-month-follow-up.	—

Measure

Time frame

1. Training component emotional empathy: Griffith Empathy Measure – GEM; German adaption (Dadds, et al., 2008, Greimel, Schulte-Rüther, Kamp-Becker, Remschmidt, Herpertz-Dahlmann, & Konrad, 2011). The parent questionnaire GEM measures in 23 items mostly the emotional empathy of children and teenagers. 2. Training component cognitive empathy: The computer-based emotion recognition test KERMIT (Kids Emotion Recognition Multiple Images Task, Drimalla, Kirst & Dziobek, in prep.) measures the emotion recognition accuracy and speed using photographies of basic emotions. Both instruments will be used in the pre- (T1) and post-assessment (T2, after 6 weeks training) as well as in the 3-month-follow-up.

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Secondary

Measure	Time frame
3. Social responsivness scale – SRS (Bölte & Poustka, 2007), subscales social conciousness/cognition, social motivation. Parent questionnaire, filled in by (a) a parent and (b) a (kindergarten) teacher: Generalization of the intervention on daily social behavior. 4. 24 computer-presented fotographies of 6 basic emotions (Ekman & Friesen, 1976): Generalization of emotion recognition skills to non-trained stimuli. 5. Level of emotional awareness scale for children – LEAS-C (Bajgar, Ciarrochi, Lane, & Deane, 2005). Performance-based assessment with 12 evocative interpersonal scenarios: Structure and complexity of emotional awareness in self and others. 6. Multifaceted Empathy Test für Jugendliche/Kinder – MET-J/K (Poustka, Rehm, Holtmann, Bock, Böhmert, & Dziobek, 2010). Fotobased test to measure emotional empathy. 7. The Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC; Shields & Cicchetti) Parent questionnaire: Changes in the child`s emotion regulation competencies. 8. The Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU, Essau, Sasagawa, & Frick, 2006). Parent questionnaire: Changes in callous-unemotional bahaviour. 9. Kiddy Kindl (Ravens-Sieberer, Görtler, Bullinger 2000). Parent questionnaire: Changes in health-related quality of life. The instruments 3-9 will be included in the pre- (T1) and post-assessment (T2, after 6 weeks training) as well as in the 3-month-follow-up. 10. Goal Attainment Scaling GAS (Kiresuk & Sherman, 1968). Operationalisation of 2 by the parents individually defined training goals concerning socioemotional competencies. The GAS will be used in T1 and T2 (after 6 weeks training). 11. Qualitative evaluation questionnaire (Kirst et al.): Qualitative evaluation of the intervention by parents and children: Generalization of socioemotional competencies, practicability, subjective perceived changes, influences on the family`s situation. The evaluation will be included in the post-assessment (T2, after 6 weeks training) and in a reduced form in the 3	—

Measure

Time frame

3. Social responsivness scale – SRS (Bölte & Poustka, 2007), subscales social conciousness/cognition, social motivation. Parent questionnaire, filled in by (a) a parent and (b) a (kindergarten) teacher: Generalization of the intervention on daily social behavior. 4. 24 computer-presented fotographies of 6 basic emotions (Ekman & Friesen, 1976): Generalization of emotion recognition skills to non-trained stimuli. 5. Level of emotional awareness scale for children – LEAS-C (Bajgar, Ciarrochi, Lane, & Deane, 2005). Performance-based assessment with 12 evocative interpersonal scenarios: Structure and complexity of emotional awareness in self and others. 6. Multifaceted Empathy Test für Jugendliche/Kinder – MET-J/K (Poustka, Rehm, Holtmann, Bock, Böhmert, & Dziobek, 2010). Fotobased test to measure emotional empathy. 7. The Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC; Shields & Cicchetti) Parent questionnaire: Changes in the child`s emotion regulation competencies. 8. The Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU, Essau, Sasagawa, & Frick, 2006). Parent questionnaire: Changes in callous-unemotional bahaviour. 9. Kiddy Kindl (Ravens-Sieberer, Görtler, Bullinger 2000). Parent questionnaire: Changes in health-related quality of life. The instruments 3-9 will be included in the pre- (T1) and post-assessment (T2, after 6 weeks training) as well as in the 3-month-follow-up. 10. Goal Attainment Scaling GAS (Kiresuk & Sherman, 1968). Operationalisation of 2 by the parents individually defined training goals concerning socioemotional competencies. The GAS will be used in T1 and T2 (after 6 weeks training). 11. Qualitative evaluation questionnaire (Kirst et al.): Qualitative evaluation of the intervention by parents and children: Generalization of socioemotional competencies, practicability, subjective perceived changes, influences on the family`s situation. The evaluation will be included in the post-assessment (T2, after 6 weeks training) and in a reduced form in the 3

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Countries

Austria, Germany

Contacts

Public ContactSimone Kirst

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

simone.kirst@hu-berlin.de+493020936125

Outcome results

None listed

Source: DRKS (via WHO ICTRP) · Data processed: Feb 19, 2026