Virtual Reality Technology as an Educational and Intervention Tool for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Current Perspectives and Future Directions

• Published in: Behavioral sciences Vol. 12; no. 5; p. 138
• Main Authors: Zhang, Minyue, Ding, Hongwei, Naumceska, Meri, Zhang, Yang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 10.05.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: autism spectrum disorder; Autistic children; childhood and adolescence; Education; Experiential learning; Hypotheses; Hypothesis testing; intervention; Pedagogy; Rehabilitation; Review; Skills; Virtual reality; virtual reality; education; childhood and adolescence; autism spectrum disorder; intervention
• ISSN: 2076-328X; 2076-328X
• DOI: 10.3390/bs12050138

The worldwide rising trend of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) calls for innovative and efficacious techniques for assessment and treatment. Virtual reality (VR) technology gains theoretical support from rehabilitation and pedagogical theories and offers a variety of capabilities in educational and interventional contexts with affordable products. VR is attracting increasing attention in the medical and healthcare industry, as it provides fully interactive three-dimensional simulations of real-world settings and social situations, which are particularly suitable for cognitive and performance training, including social and interaction skills. This review article offers a summary of current perspectives and evidence-based VR applications for children with ASD, with a primary focus on social communication, including social functioning, emotion recognition, and speech and language. Technology- and design-related limitations, as well as disputes over the application of VR to autism research and therapy, are discussed, and future directions of this emerging field are highlighted with regards to application expansion and improvement, technology enhancement, linguistic diversity, and the development of theoretical models and brain-based research.