Virtual environments as an assessment modality with pediatric ASD populations: a brief report

Abstract

Virtual environments (VEs) have demonstrated promise as a neuropsychological assessment modality and may be well suited for the evaluation of children suspected of having an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Some recent studies indicate their potential for enhancing reliability, ecologically validity, and sensitivity over traditional neuropsychological evaluation measures. Although research using VEs with ASD is increasing to the degree that several reviews of the literature have been conducted, the reviews to date lack rigor and are not necessarily specific to cognitive or neuropsychological assessment as many focus on intervention. The aim of this project was to comprehensively examine the current literature status of neuropsychological assessment in pediatric ASD using VEs by conducting a systematic review. Specifically, psychometric comparisons of VEs to traditional neuropsychological assessment measures that examined reliability, validity, and/or diagnostic accuracy for pediatric individuals, age 18 and below, with ASD were sought. The search using key words yielded 899 manuscripts, 894 of which were discarded for not meeting inclusion criteria. The remaining five met exclusion criteria. Therefore, the systematic review was modified to a brief report. These findings (or lack thereof) indicate a significant gap in the literature in that psychometric comparisons of these tools for the neuropsychological assessment of pediatric individuals with ASD are lacking. An important future direction of research will be extending the demonstrated incremental validity of VE neuropsychological assessment with other neurodevelopmental (e.g., attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) and adult populations to pediatric ASD populations.

Use of Virtual Reality in Psychiatric Diagnostic Assessments: A Systematic Review

“…As ASD is a developmental disorder this may explain the lack of research in adults. However, recent reviews including children with ASD show a similar gap in knowledge on the utility of VR for assessment ( 44 , 45 ).…”

Neuroscience of Virtual Reality: From Virtual Exposure to Embodied Medicine

“…A third group of three articles 20,21,24 analyzed the use of VR in pediatric psychology, with a specific focus on VR applications for the assessment of children suspected of having autism spectrum disorder 57 or other neurodevelopmental disorders 58,59 (e.g., attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder). In this field, different from the previous ones, the level of clinical evidence available is still low, even if the existing data suggest moderate evidence about the effectiveness of VR-based treatments.…”

Virtual Reality Technology in Complex Medical Rehabilitation of Patients with Disabilities (Review)

“…Later, this approach was used in treatment of itching [22], pain syndromes [23,24], depression, insomnia, post-traumatic stress disorder in the military [25,26]. The potential of VR technology is highly appreciated in children with autism spectrum disorders [27][28][29][30] and in patients with Parkinson's disease [31], Alzheimer's disease [32], multiple sclerosis [33], etc. Nowadays, VR is increasingly used for rehabilitation after stroke [34][35][36][37][38].…”