Computer monitoring helps social skills

People with autism or Asperger's syndrome can often talk at great length about their interests or interrupt others. Psychologists at the University of Illinois have developed a new way of giving people feedback about their conversation skills. They digitize the conversation and feed it back into a monitor. People's voices appear in colour growing in size if the voice gets louder, overlapping another colour if it interrupts and narrowing with silence. It is hoped that this feedback will help people with Asperger's modify their conversation in family or couple therapy.

You can find out more about this research at

http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUKTRE53000Z20090401?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&sp=true