The_Transporters
The Transporters
2006 children's television series
The Transporters is a 2006 children's television series produced by Catalyst Pictures Limited designed to help children with autism aged between 2 and 8 years old recognise and understand emotions.
It was developed by the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge by a team led by Professor Simon Baron-Cohen and including Dr Ofer Golan.
The Transporters is based on the idea that children with autism may find human faces confusing since they are unpredictable due to the fact that the autistic brain cannot cope with unpredictability. In Baron-Cohen's theory, children with autism are strong "systemisers" and faces are hard to systemise. In contrast, children with autism have a preference for predictable systems. The Transporters therefore focuses on mechanical vehicles that only travel along tracks, because they are highly predictable systems. Grafted onto these animated vehicles are real human faces. In this way, social skills teaching takes place in an autism friendly format.