Virtual reality (VR) technology has shown great potential on intervention of social skills for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This review aimed to review the application of VR in current social skills intervention targeting autistic children and evaluate its effect. After searching and screening three databases, we found 20 papers on interventions for children with ASD using VR technology, including three studies of social communication, six studies about social–emotional reciprocity, nine studies on social interaction, and eight studies of on social cognition. First, concerning the age of the children involved in the interventions, we found that VR devices were more suitable for children with ASD who were older. Second, regarding VR devices, we recommend laptop VR devices based on the cost, non-invasiveness, and effectiveness of their use in interventions. The VR application form of game is more advisable. More importantly, for the design of the VR intervention, based on the adoption article, we found that using a single participant worked better. This research presents the overall effects and limitations of this literature as well as implications for future work. 

Virtual reality enhances the social skills of children with autism spectrum disorder: a review

The problem is that children's cooperative abilities are still low because teachers tend to give individual assignments and rarely give group assignments that allow children to work with their friends. This study analyzes social skill training on the ability to cooperate in group B Kindergarten children. This research is quasi-experimental research using a non-equivalent pretest-posttest control group design. The research population was 69 students—the sample with cluster random sampling technique. The sample of this study amounted to 33 students. The data on the results of the ability to work together was collected using observational techniques, which were analyzed using descriptive statistical analysis techniques and inferential statistics with a t-test. The results of the analysis obtained tcount = 23,425 while at the 5% significance level with dk = 31 the value of ttable = 2,039 so that tcount = 23,425 > ttable = 2,039. Based on the test, then H0 is rejected, which means that the HA hypothesis is accepted, which states that there is a significant effect between the group of children who receive social skills training and children who do not receive social skills training on children's cooperative abilities. The results showed a significant effect on cooperative skills between groups of children who received social skills training and those who did not receive social skills training on cooperative skills in Kindergarten.

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The Impact Of Social Skills Training On The Ability To Cooperate In Early Childhood

Social skills are the skills that humans use to communicate with each other verbally and non-verbally. The deficit of social skills is a core symptom of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Physical social robots and virtual environments have been popular training tools for children with ASD in recent years.

Virtual Social Robot Enhances the Social Skills of Children with HFA

Received from March 12, 2022; revised from May 27, 2022; accepted from July 15, 2022. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Servet Bayram, Yeditepe University, Turkey. ©2022 Birlesik Dunya Yenilik Arastirma ve Yayincilik Merkezi. All rights reserved Abstract This study aimed to use fairy-tale therapy technology by teachers in the formation of children’s communication skills and was patterned according to this purpose. In this context, it was aimed to conduct a study with primary schoolteachers. The research was created and applied in the spring academic period of 2021–2022. 276 primary schoolteachers voluntarily participated in the study. In the research, fairy-tale therapy technology training was provided to the group participating in the study in the form of a 3-weeks online training. In order to collect data, the ‘technology and fairy-tale therapy’ data collection tool developed and validated by the researchers was used in the study. The data collection tool used in the study was delivered to and collected from the people participating in the study by the online method. The analysis of the data was carried out using the SPSS programme; frequency analysis was performed with the t-test; and the results obtained were added to the study accompanied by tables. As a result of the research, it is seen that primary schoolteachers adopted the fairy-tale therapy technology in their professional lives and achieved positive results as they also used them in their professional lives.

World Journal on Educational Technology: Current Issues

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are very sensitive to social situations and have difficulties interacting with their peers. In order to mitigate this difficulty, therapeutic treatment is often used. Games, which can be used for many different purposes, can also be used as an Assistive Technology (AT) in the therapy process, in order to encourage social communication and collaboration, which are very important skills in daily life. A Systematic Review (SR) was conducted using two research questions to gather more information about the theme. In parallel, a survey was applied to support the results of the SR. We found that genres of games that are likely to enhance collaboration are collaborative brain games (such as puzzle or memory games). We also found that games should be very minimalist (with a low number of players) and contain clear language, avoiding figures of speech. The results of this paper will be used as a basis to develop a game as an AT for the therapy of children with ASD in the future.

Requirements Gathering for the Development of a Game for Therapy Sessions with Autistic Children to Encourage Social Communication

In this paper, the researchers presenting an ongoing study that aims to evaluate the effectiveness of combing Virtual Reality (VR) and social robot as a novel approach to enhance the social skills of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Using Unity 3D, a desktop Virtual environment that employs a virtual robot to interact with the participants through social skill training programme has been developed. 15 children with ASD are participating in the study to evaluate the effectiveness of the developed tool. The initial results show improvement in the skills of the participants.

Training Social Skills of Children with ASD Through Social Virtual Robot

This study investigates the impact of combining virtual environment with a social VRobot as a novel approach to train the social skills of children with high-functioning autism (HFA). A 3D social virtual robot is used in a non-immersive (desktop) virtual environment to enhance the social skills of children with HFA through a social skills training program guided by a parent or a teacher. The motivation of this research is to provide a tool that can be widely accessible, cheap, and easily used by parents and teachers either at home or school. The training program targets three social skills: imitation, emotion recognition, and expression, and intransitive gestures skills. Experimental sessions were conducted with 15 children with HFA (4-12 years) both online and on-site. The participants were taught to recognize six basic emotions and 11 intransitive gestures (Phase I), to imitate these emotions and gestures (Phase II), and to produce them inappropriate social contexts (Phase III). Across all the three phases for each skill, significant differences were found between the pre-test, post-test, and follow-up test results.

Maha Abdelmohsen

Papers

Training Social Skills of Children with ASD Through Social Virtual Robot

Jammo Virtual Robot Enhances the Social Skills of Children With HFA: Development and Deployment

Virtual Social Robot Enhances the Social Skills of Children with HFA