Summary:
Children with autism spectrum disorder, who participated in a virtual reality training program, improved social cognition skills and reported better real-world relationships. Neurocognitive testing showed significant gains in emotional recognition, understanding the perspective of others and the ability to problem solve.
Although most children with high-functioning autism have above average intellectual capabilities, they often experience social difficulties. Deficits in social communication and difficulty inhibiting thoughts and regulating emotions can lead to social isolation and low self-esteem. However, new research from the center for brain health at the University of Texas at Dallas shows that a new virtual reality training program is producing positive results.
The Program:
“Individuals with autism may become overwhelmed and anxious in social situations,” said Nyaz Didehbani, Ph.D., a research clinician at the Center for BrainHealth. “The virtual reality training platform creates a safe place for participants to practice social situations without the intense fear of consequence.”
Findings published in the Journal Computers and Human Behavior reveal that participants who completed the training demonstrated improved social cognition skills and reported better real-world relationships. Neurocognitive testing showed significant results in emotional recognition, better understanding and problem-solving skills.
For the study, 30 young people ages 7 to 16 with high-functioning autism were matched into groups of 2. The teams completed 10, 1-hour sessions of VR training over a 5-week period. Participants learned strategies and practiced social situations such a meeting a peer for 1st time, confronting a bully, and inviting someone to a party. Participants interacted with 2 clinicians through virtual avatars. 1clinician served as a coach-giving instructions and guidance, 2nd– conversational partner who played a classmate, bully, teacher or others depending on the scenario in the video-game -like world.
This research was built on past studies conducted on ASD and reveals that VR may be a promising and motivating platform for both age groups. However, this was the first study to pair participants and teach them relationship skills from virtual world conversations.
“It’s exciting that we can observe changes in diverse domains including emotion recognition, making social attribution, and executive functions related to reasoning through this life-like intervention,” said Daniel Krawczyk, PhD, associate professor at The University of Texas at Dallas and Debbie and Jim Francis Chair at BrainHealth at the Center for BrainHealth. “These results demonstrate that core social skills can be enhanced using a virtual training method”