This study examined the relationship between teacher identification of socially at-risk adolescents and baseline student social competency levels. Additionally, the feasibility and effects of an eight-session, virtual social training were analyzed. Upon completion of the virtual social training, the transfer effects from the targeted intervention into the general education classroom were determined. Study participants (N=90) were comprised of sixth, seventh and eighth-grade students from four public middle schools in Dallas, Texas. Data was collected through classroom teacher questionnaires to measure students’ baseline social behaviors. In addition, pre-post student performance measures in the areas of affect recognition, social inference, and social attribution were administered. Results revealed that middle school teachers were effective identifiers of students with lagging social skills. Baseline ratings of social skills showed a high positive association between student affect recognition and teacher rating of participant total social skills including communication, cooperation, responsibility, and self-control. A high negative association was found between student affect recognition and problem behaviors. A high negative association was also found between student perspective-taking and hyperactivity and externalizing behaviors. Student pre-post test performance measures revealed significant improvement in affect recognition, attribution, and social inferencing after undergoing the virtual social training. At the time of a 5°week follow up, teachers rated participants’ social skills in the areas of communication and assertion as significantly improved. Sixty-eight percent of participants reported increased confidence in social communication skills such as relating, maintaining, adapting, and asserting thoughts after the training. Preliminary findings from this small-scale study provide evidence that a brief eight-session, virtual social training in middle school is a feasible delivery model that can achieve positive effects on social behavior, and that teacher referral was a reliable way to identify students who could benefit from the training. Incorporating teacher perspective aided in translating a previously lab-based training into an ecologically relevant setting while addressing a programming need to meet the social demands of adolescence.

Low immersion virtual reality (LIVR) is a computer-generated, three-dimensional virtual environment that allows for authentic social interactions through a personal avatar, or digital representation of oneself. Lab-based delivery of LIVR social skills intervention has been shown to support social learning through controlled, targeted practice. Recent remote technological advancements allow LIVR-based social skills training to potentially overcome accessibility barriers by delivering to youth in their home. This study investigated the impact of 10-h of Charisma™ Virtual Social Training (CHARISMA-VST), a LIVR-based intervention, on social skill changes in children and adolescents who struggle socially via either in-person or remote training protocols. Specifically, the aims examined both the impact of training location (in-person vs remote access) and diagnosis (parent report of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis versus parent report of other non-ASD diagnosis) on objective measures of social skill change following CHARISMA-VST. Researchers delivered the CHARISMA-VST via Charisma 1.0, a customized virtual gaming environment. Sixty-seven participants (49 males, 18 females) between the ages of 9–17, with parent reported social challenges, completed 10, 1-h CHARISMA-VST sessions during which nine social cognitive strategies were taught and then practiced within a LIVR environment with interspersed social coaching. Four social cognitive domains were measured pre-post training: emotion recognition, social inferencing, social attribution, and social self-schemata. Results revealed improvements in emotion recognition, social inferencing, social attribution, and social self-schemata with medium to large effect sizes following the CHARISMA-VST. There was no moderating effect of training location on emotion recognition, social inferencing, and social self-schemata, suggesting comparable gains whether participants accessed the technology in their own homes or from a school or specialty center. There was no moderating effect of ASD versus non-ASD diagnosis on performance measures, suggesting CHARISMA-VST may be effective in improving social skills in individuals beyond its initially designed use focused on individuals with ASD. These encouraging findings from this pilot intervention study provide some of the first evidence of potential new virtual technology tools, as exemplified by CHARISMA-VST, to improve one of the most important aspects of human behavior—social skills and human connectedness in youth with a range of social competency challenges.