Teaching social skills to students with autism spectrum disorder through augmented, virtual and mixed reality

Abstract

This systematic literature review was conducted to explore the social validity of augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) as a means of providing social skill instruction to students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Forty-one articles met the inclusion criteria, including five studies utilizing AR and the remaining 36 utilizing VR for social skill interventions. No studies implemented MR. The targeted skills of the studies included emotion recognition, relationship skills, social awareness, cooperation, and executive functioning. The intervention was considered effective in 63% of studies, not effective in 10% of studies, and mixed results in 27% of studies. The social validity indicators reported by researchers ranged from two to 14 of 17 determined categories. Findings indicate the primary socially valid reasons for utilizing AR/VR for social skill instruction were high student motivation toward the intervention and a positive attitude toward the technology. Findings indicate that increasing the role of parents, educators, and students as both social skill selectors and treatment agents and adding valid and reliable skill measures may improve the effects of an intervention. Sustainability may increase by providing training to both treatment agents and participants. AR has the potential to improve generalization and VR provides a practice environment for performance deficits. Combining these technologies may provide a more effective social skill intervention.

Functionality of Apps for People with Autism: Comparison between Educators from Florence and Granada

“…Studies on the usage and frequency of use of apps in formal and informal education with people having autism are, however, non-existent, as is the case with studies on other types of technological resources (Eye Tracking, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality, Robotics, Digital Communication Boards, etc.). There are many studies on the potential of ICT for people with functional diversity and, more specifically, autism [ 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ], but fewer that look at the motivation for using such resources, the digital training of educators, or the difficulties and simplicities that professionals find in their use. Table 1 shows previous studies from different countries on the perceptions of educators regarding the application of various technologies in the classroom with students with ASD and, specifically, autism.…”

The application of augmented reality in the learning of autistic students: a systematic and thematic review in 1996–2020

“…About the terminology to conduct the search of the documents in the authors' proposal, it is appropriate to use manuals such as the DSM-V or standardised term bases such as thesaurus. With reference to the inclusion and exclusion criteria in the filtering of the document, this study raises specific aspects such as including in the study all those documents that work on AR, while in the works of Mosher and Carreon (2021) and Deschsling et al. (2021), this filtering is not carried out and no difference is made between AR and VR.…”

“…In recent research, Mosher and Carreon (2021) develop an SR to explore the social validity of AR, virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) to provide social skills learning for autistic students. These authors mix VR and AR in their analysis, so the results obtained are not applicable to this study.…”

“…As in previous situations, the problem of terminology and review period is repeated. As with Mosher and Carreon (2021) and Deschsling et al (2021) in the development of the SR delved into documents that used VR. In contrast to the previous ones, it is the one that uses the largest number of documents with 49.…”

Virtual Reality Technology as an Educational and Intervention Tool for Autism Spectrum Disorder: Current Perspectives and Future Directions

“…VR has also emerged as an effective approach in various areas of the health field, such as diagnosis [4], rehabilitation [5], surgical training [6], and mental health treatment [7]. The wide application of this technology has inspired many researchers to consider the potential and effectiveness of implementing VR technology for the assessment and treatment of ASD [8][9][10][11]. This article attempts to provide an updated review of the emerging field to summarize the current perspectives and identify future directions.…”