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. 2022 Feb 1;9(2):181.
doi: 10.3390/children9020181.

Children on the Autism Spectrum and the Use of Virtual Reality for Supporting Social Skills

Alessandro Frolli  1 , Giulia Savarese  2 , Francesca Di Carmine  1 , Antonia Bosco  3 , Emilio Saviano  3 , Angelo Rega  4 , Marco Carotenuto  5 , Maria Carla Ricci  1
Affiliations

Children on the Autism Spectrum and the Use of Virtual Reality for Supporting Social Skills

Alessandro Frolli et al. Children (Basel). .

Abstract

Background: Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are characterized by differences in socio-pragmatic communication. These conditions are allocated within a "spectrum" of phenotypic variability. Virtual reality (VR) is a useful tool for healthcare intervention and particularly safely advancing social abilities in children with ASD.

Methods: In our study two types of intervention for improving social skills were compared: (i) emotional training obtained by the use of virtual reality (Gr1), (ii) traditional emotional training performed individually with a therapist (Gr2). We aimed to identify the intervention with the shortest acquisition time for the proposed social tasks.

Results: Our findings show that both types of intervention had the same acquisition time for the recognition of primary emotions. However, for the use of primary and secondary emotions, the group using VR showed shorter acquisition times.

Conclusions: These findings together with previous preliminary datasuggest that VR can be a promising, dynamic and effective practice for the support of basic and complex social skills of these individuals.

Keywords: emotional training; level 1 ASD; social skills; theory of mind; virtual reality.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Description of procedures.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Observation between the two groups at T0 and T1 on task 2 (ES). Groups 1 and 2 comparison at T0 and T1 on task 2 (ES).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Comparison of the two groups between T0 and T1 at task 3 (ESPE). Comparison of the group 1 and 2 between T0 and T1 on task 3 (ESPE).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Comparison of the groups at T0 together with T1 on task 4 (ESSE). Comparison of the two groups between T0 and T1 at task 4 (ESSE).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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