Abstract
Background: Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are characterized by differences in socio-pragmatic communication. These conditions are allocated within a “spectrum” of phenotypic variability. Virtual reality (VR) is a useful tool for healthcare intervention and particularly safely advancing social abilities in children with ASD. Methods: In our study two types of intervention for improving social skills were compared: (i) emotional training obtained by the use of virtual reality (Gr1), (ii) traditional emotional training performed individually with a therapist (Gr2). We aimed to identify the intervention with the shortest acquisition time for the proposed social tasks. Results: Our findings show that both types of intervention had the same acquisition time for the recognition of primary emotions. However, for the use of primary and secondary emotions, the group using VR showed shorter acquisition times. Conclusions: These findings together with previous preliminary datasuggest that VR can be a promising, dynamic and effective practice for the support of basic and complex social skills of these individuals.
Highlights
Accepted: 29 January 2022Disorders of the autism spectrum (ASDs) are described as pervasive, chronic and persistent neuro-developmental conditions affecting approximately 1 in 68 children [1,2].This condition is characterized by fundamental difficulties in socio-emotional reciprocity, interpersonal connection and a repertoire of restricted and monotonous interests and behaviors [3,4,5]
ANOVA methods were used to compare the scores that were derived from the measurement of acquisition times to the four proposed tasks: recognition of primary or basic emotions (PE), recognition of secondary emotions (SE), emotions and situations for primary emotions (ESPE) and emotions and situations for secondary emotions (ESSE)
Following the literacy intervention (T1), significant differences emerged with respect to the acquisition times for the four tasks proposed between Gr1 and Gr2
Summary
Disorders of the autism spectrum (ASDs) are described as pervasive, chronic and persistent neuro-developmental conditions affecting approximately 1 in 68 children [1,2]. This condition is characterized by fundamental difficulties in socio-emotional reciprocity, interpersonal connection and a repertoire of restricted and monotonous interests and behaviors [3,4,5]. The previous diagnostic manual, DSM-IV-TR [6], divided autism-spectrumaffected individuals into five subcategories, including individuals with Asperger’s syndrome (AS). In the new diagnostic manual, DSM5 [3], this subdivision has been removed and replaced with a severity level value (1 corresponding to mild symptoms, 2 to moderate and 3 to severe).
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