What is it about?
Immersive virtual reality can provide profitable help in technology-enhanced treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder. In this paper we reason on how applications of this kind can be evaluated in the case of ASD people and on the difference with the case of Typical Development people. We also discover how apparent inefficiencies turn out be promising premises for technology-enhanced ASD treatment.
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Why is it important?
Considering the estimated prevalence reported by recent studies (e.g., of about 1.5% in developed countries, 1 in 68 in the USA, about 1 in 100 children in the UK, about 0.95% for childhood and adolescence in Central Italy), and the heavy demand put by ASD people on families and on educational, social, and medical services, there is a significant need for research on therapeutical interventions and (novel) treatment strategies that ensure persons with ASD achieve optimal outcomes and improve their quality of life, with benefits for ASD people, their families, caregivers, and social networks.
Perspectives
The study was conducted with a group of ASD young people, high-functioning, aged 21-23, a homogeneous users’ sample representative of a target population potentially highly open to the utilization of state-of-the-art technology and with good chances of integration in the social life but definitely under-considered in the literature on VR-based ASD treatment. We hope our study encourages other researchers in the field to carry out additional studies in this direction on this specific users’ population.
Laura Tarantino
Universita degli Studi dell'Aquila
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Immersive applications: what if users are in the autism spectrum?, November 2019, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery),
DOI: 10.1145/3359997.3365696.
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