Enhance affective expression and social reciprocity for children with autism spectrum disorder: using virtual reality headsets at schools

ABSTRACT

Social-emotional deficits in school-aged children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) greatly hinder these children from fully participating in various school activities in the inclusive education setting. Previous studies have demonstrated evidence regarding the effectiveness of using virtual reality (VR) for enhancing the children’s affective expression and social reciprocity. However, considering the technical and logistical complexity of the enabling hardware and software systems, how such approaches can be effectively and sustainably delivered in the school setting remains underexplored. This paper presents a study that utilised VR headsets to enhance affective expression and social reciprocity for children with ASD and explored how the approach could be effectively and sustainably delivered at schools. A total of eight VR learning scenarios were designed based on Kolb’s experiential learning framework. 176 children aged 6–12 with a clinical diagnosis of ASD participated in the study. The statistical analyses showed that the participants who received the intervention significantly improved in affective expression and social reciprocity, compared to those who were in the control group. Moreover, the approaches to enhance long-term sustainability have also been presented and discussed in this paper.

KEYWORDS:

• Virtual reality
• autism spectrum disorder
• experiential learning
• affective expression
• social reciprocity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This project is funded by the Quality Education Fund, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (Project No.: 2016/0260).

Notes on contributors

Horace H. S. Ip

Horace H.S. Ip is Lee Shau Kee Professor of e-Learning, Chair Professor of Computer Science, and the founding director of the AIMtech Centre (Centre for Innovative Applications of Internet and Multimedia Technologies) at City University of Hong Kong. He graduated from University College London (UCL) with a BSc (Hons) and PhD degrees. His research interests include interactive multimedia, pattern recognition, virtual environment and e-Learning technologies. He was awarded the prestigious Fellow of the International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR) in 2004. He has published over 300 papers in international journals and conference proceedings.

Simpson W. L. Wong

Simpson W. L. Wong is an Honorary Lecturer in the Department of Language and Cognition, University College London. He received his PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of Oxford. His research interests include twin studies, specific learning difficulties, multimedia learning, second language learning, and mental and physical health.

Dorothy F. Y. Chan

Dorothy F. Y. Chan is an Honorary Clinical Associate Professor at Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Chen Li

Chen Li is a Research Assistant Professor of the Department of Computing, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He received the BSc in computer science and technology from Nanjing University, and the MSc (Distinction) and PhD in computer science from the City University of Hong Kong. His research interests include virtual reality, educational technologies, and serious games.

Lo Lo Kon

Lo Lo Kon, Po Ke Ma, Kate S.Y. Lau, and Julia Byrn are therapists were research staff of the AIMtech Centre (Centre for Innovative Applications of Internet and Multimedia Technologies) at City University of Hong Kong.