An Evolution of Virtual Reality Training Designs for Children With Autism and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

Abstract

This article describes an evolution of training programs to use first-person interaction in virtual reality (VR) situations to teach safety skills to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Multiple VR programs for children aged 2 to 9 were built and tested between 1992 and 2007. Based on these results, a learning design evolved that uses practice in virtual space with guidance and correction by an animated character, strategic limitations on allowed actions to force correct patterning, and customization of worlds and responses to simplify user controls. This article describes program evolution by comparing design details and results as variations in behavioral responses between disorders, differences in skill set complexity between different safety skills being taught, and improved technology required changes in the virtual training methodology. A series of research projects are summarized in which the VR programs proved effective for teaching children with ASD and FASD new skills in the virtual space and, where measured, most children generalized the actions to the real world.

Opinions of Turkish Parents and Teachers About Safety Skills Instruction to Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Preliminary Investigation

“…Many children each year face the risk of injury, lost or death due to unintentional accidents (i.e., crossing the street, abduction, electric shock; Bergstrom et al 2012;Istre et al 2002;Phelan et al 2001;Runyan et al 2005;Tinsworth and McDonald 2001) as well as intentional accidents (i.e., physical and sexual abuse; Clees and Gast 1994;Dixon et al 2010;Pereda et al 2009). Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other developmental disabilities face two to three times the risk of injury or abuse compared with those of their same age peers in the general population (Agran and Krump 2010;Calavari and Romanczyk 2012;Koller 2000;Lee et al 2008;McEachern 2012;Strickland et al 2007;Volkmar and Wiesner 2009;Yildirim-Sari and Girli 2012).…”

“…Even if they acquire these skills, they may not be able to generalize them into novel settings (Doyle and Doyle-Iland 2004a, b;Scheuermann and Webber 2002). Additionally, they may not be able to read and anticipate non-verbal cues of others who intend them harm or understand exposure to sexual abuse or abduction (Doyle and Doyle-Iland 2004a, b;Kenny et al 2013;Mechling 2008;Strickland et al 2007). Lastly, children with ASD may be more compliant with an adult's requests since compliance training is an integral part of their educational programs (Lumley and Miltenberger The first author completed this study in partial fulfillment of the requirements of a Master of Science Degree in Applied Behavior Analysis in Autism at Anadolu University, Eskisehir, Turkey.…”

Virtual Reality in Pediatric Neurorehabilitation: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism and Cerebral Palsy

“…Safety is one of the top concerns of parents of children with disabilities because children with disabilities may not have developed the adequate cognitive skills to understand the concept of danger, or the adequate physical skills to avoid dangerous situations. VR offers safe access to realistic environments that would be considered dangerous in the real world [28,29] . In a study by Miller and Reid [9] , children with cerebral palsy who played virtual sports games commented on the safety aspect of this type of play engagement; 'Every time the ball hits me when I'm playing in not VR, I usually got hurt.…”

Sense of presence and atypical social judgments in immersive virtual environments

“…In addition, authors have investigated the usefulness of VEs for directly tackling real-world hazards such as crossing the road (Josman et al, 2008) and evacuating a building in response to a fire alarm (Strickland et al, 2007) or tornado warning (Self et al, 2007). In all cases, children with autism have learned new information from these 3-D representations and have responded in ways that suggest they understand that the VE can offer useful information about the real world.…”