A Preliminary Study of Assessing Gaze, Interoception and School Performance among Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders: The Feasibility of VR Classroom

Abstract

Children with developmental disabilities (DDs) have sensory modulation disorders that interrelate school performance. Virtual reality (VR) has demonstrated the potential to become a neuropsychological assessment modality. This study was conducted to explore the feasibility of the VR classroom for assessing their characteristics of gaze, school performance, and interoception. School-aged children were assigned to the DD group or control group. A VR classroom was designed to evaluate their gaze patterns to distracting events. Interoception was assessed using the Heart Rate Perception test and the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA). The DD group had a significantly longer gaze duration on the virtual teacher during 30–45 s of the VR classroom event (p < 0.05). The mean score of the quiz and the Heart Rate Perception test showed a significant tendency to be lower than the children of the control group. The DD group scored significantly lower in six of eight subscales of the MAIA. These results showed the potential of VR classroom to evaluate the difference of sensory modulation between school-aged children with DDs and typically developed children. Future research is necessary to investigate the validity of the VR environment used in this study.

Assessment of Sensory Processing Issues in Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Experiences of Maltreatment

“…It was thought that the DM group who experienced childhood abuse may have experienced some brain effects, leading to decreased concentration and interest in others. Additionally, the DD group consistently gazed at the "teacher" for a longer time from 0 to 75 s. Moreover, in a previous study, the DD group gazed at the "teacher" in the VR classroom significantly longer than the TD group, between 30 and 45 s [22]. It is conceivable that the DD group was interested in the "teacher" and consistently gazed at the object of interest.…”

“…A VR classroom was designed [22]. We measured eye gaze during visual and auditory interference stimuli using the VIVE Pro Eye.…”

“…A quiz was created and used to assess the comprehension of the "teacher's explanations in the VR classroom" [22]. The self-administered quiz consisted of five questions from the teacher's explanation in a 90 s VR video, which the children answered on their own.…”

“…Therefore, sensory idiosyncrasies due to neurodevelopmental disorders and abusive experiences affect children's social and academic skills, which in turn affect their subsequent well-being and therefore need to be understood at an early stage. We developed a system that enables visual search in a simulated classroom environment reproduced by virtual reality (VR) [22]. Children with ASD and/or ADHD stared at the teacher significantly more than typically developing children but tended to have poorer listening comprehension.…”

“…Our previous preliminary research paper reported a system that detects pupils' gaze patterns in a classroom environment reproduced by virtual reality (VR) [22]. Although the developmentally disabled and typically developing groups of children are historically contrasting samples [23,25], this paper focuses on children who have experienced maltreatment as well.…”