5.33 Nintendo® Wii™-Based Intervention and Autonomic Arousal in Children With ASD: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Autonomic arousal has been studied in children with ASD compared with typically developing children, showing significant differences. It is hypothesized that children with ASD are unable to learn because of high autonomic arousal and social anxiety associated with a threatening human environment. A nonthreatening virtual environment may cause less arousal and better learning because of lesser social anxiety, translating into an overall improvement in ASD symptoms. This study is the first reported RCT studying the effect of an interactive computer game on autonomic arousal in children with ASD and improvement in ASD symptoms.