State-of-the-art of virtual reality technologies for children on the autism spectrum

Abstract

In the past decade there has been a rapid advance in the use of virtual reality (VR) technologies for leisure, training and education. VR is argued to offer particular benefits for children on the autism spectrum, chiefly because it can offer simulations of authentic real-world situations in a carefully controlled and safe environment. Given the real world social difficulties experienced by children on the spectrum, this technology has therefore been argued to offer distinct advantages and benefits for social and life skills training compared to other approaches. Whilst there has been some progress in testing the relevance and applicability of VR for children on the autism spectrum in educational contexts, there remains a significant challenge in developing robust and usable technologies that can really make a difference in real world classrooms. This article considers the evidence that has been published over the past 10 years to assess how the potential of VR has been explored in practice and reflect on the current state-of-the-art in this field.

Keywords:

• virtual reality
• autism spectrum
• social skills
• learning

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission (Grant Agreement no. 231266) and formed part of the deliverable ‘Communication and social participation: collaborative technologies for interaction and learning’ by N. Bauminger, A. Battochi, S. Cobb, S. Eden, E. Gal, T. Glover, S. Hoshmand, S. Parsons, P.L. Weiss and M. Zancanaro (2009).