Does anyone know ho to make an aspie child recognize facial expressions and maybe show them himself?

My child recognizes happiness and anger, but not sadness or fear. He cannot show those two expressions himself either, intentionally or unintentionally.

Of course I can see how he is feeling, but I think most people can't. When I tried to model a fearful expression for him, he laughed and said I looked like a fish! Should I just tell him that people who look like fish are probably scared? We both enjoy the game and always end up pulling funny faces, but I was wondering if there is a better method.

Truthfully, I can't think of how sadness or fear look like facially.  The only way I can do it is if I make a terror, I am about to die face, which would never come up in real life (one hopes) or an extreme sadness face which would be accompanied by the tears which would make it obvious.  Anger and happiness, however, are fully expressed in the face in average life, so your child would see that regularly, so may recognize it easier.  Even if you draw a cartoon sad, mouth turned down or fear, eyes widened, it doesn't accurately reflect human face enough to recognize it in a real person.  

You may be asking your child to recognize muscular changes that are too subtle for a child to understand, let alone an aspie.  Also, remember that we don't recognize facial emotions well because we don't recognize emotion in ourselves easily.  It might be more helpful to play with the emotion wheel, where they identify their own emotions first, before trying to get them to see it in others.  Just a thought.

I still can't "do" more than the most basic of facial expressions.  

Intellectually I understand what they are and that they look different, I can even draw a circle for a face with an upward curving line for a smile and a downward curving one for a frown.  But the fine distinctions may as well not be there for me, I can't see them even though I now know they're there.  I have to infer from actions and words, not facial expression.  

Which is why it's so difficult, if I'm not concentrating, to realize that somebody else is not happy or something.  I used to think the people around me were using some sort of secret hand shake or something when they seemed to understand what another was feeling simply by looking at them.  It's not that I don't care about how they feel, it's simply that I can't see it just by looking at how the various features are moved.  

But then, I do have face blindness as well, I've worked past my mother and sisters at shopping centres without realizing who they were.  Before my DX, I had the reputation of being a bit of a daydreamer, "off with the fairies", simply because half the time I didn't know who the hell I was talking to!
Alison

I like the start of a new preschool term: we put name tags on each child for the first week to work out who they are.  So for the first week I work hard to remember differences in relative height, body weight, shape, hair style and voice to help me recall who they are after the name tags are no longer used.  But even after a year I will still get some of the children mixed up.
Alison

Alison, I love your signature!

My son doesn't have face blindness; when a boy across the road shouts a greeting and he remembers that he is supposed to greet back (which isn't always the case), he uses the correct name.

Hmm...so really you are both saying that he will probably not get these subtle expressions anyway. I suppose I'll keep trying for the time being, as we both have fun with it.

Zoey, how do I help him identify his emotions? The therapist wants me to do that too. But precisely because he doesn't show outward signs of them very much, I find this difficult to do.

It is the same with me for happiness and anger, though someone has to really have a big smile or a big frown for me to get it. And extreme happiness and extreme anger seem to involve a lot of mouth expression, quite unlike sadness and fear, which I suspect is reflected more in the eyes and subtle body language.

I'm 43 and comprehension of most body language and facial expression still eludes me.

Here is a link to a simplified version of the emotion wheel you can use for kids.

http://drdeborahserani.blogspot.com/2006...-that.html

I need the full input of body language and spoken language inflexions to understand the emotion. I can't just look at a face in isolation and tell what the person is feeling. I might add my face is very expressive as to what I feel, even though I know not always what I am feeling, my wife can tell me.

However I can very easily tell if someone dislikes me.

I thought I wasn't too bad at these things but now am not so sure. It's hard for me to recognise my own emotions, except in retrospect and even then it tends to come down to very broad categories eg. sad, mad, or happy.

I often think others dislike me even when maybe they don't. Mum said I was always seeing criticism that wasn't there. Mind you, I am usually fairly good at detecting when others are just pretending to be nice but I don't know how I do it.

Most of the time I am not terribly good at transmitting emotions; with only the really strong ones showing. Again, I am told I look depressed much of the time, even when I don't feel that way.

I get this all the time.
"Why so sad?", random people will ask me.
"I'm not."
"Well, smile!"
"Why?"
"You are sad."
"..."

I usually get told that I look "grim" or "angry" when I'm really just concentrating or zoning out.  I have to really work at putting on a happy face during the work day so that I don't scare 1) my students 2) my work colleagues 3) my student's parents.  It's hard work, having to keep an inane smile all day!
Alison

Since I usually show a happy face all the time, I get sometimes
"Why so happy?"
"Why not"
"Its exam time"
"So, I'm alive"

One just can't win.