Fostering Teamwork and Learning Skills in Children through Gamified Virtual Reality in Museums: A Pilot Study

Background Social anxiety is a common psychological problem among teenagers, manifested as excessive fear and self-awareness in social situations. Social anxiety hinders the development of teenagers' social skills, thereby causing serious negative impacts on interpersonal relationships and future development. Music therapy is an alternative treatment method that provides a non-threatening environment for emotional exploration and social interaction. Involving teenagers in music activities through music therapy can alleviate their anxiety and enhance their potential for emotional expression. Therefore, by studying and analyzing the therapeutic effect of music therapy on social anxiety and its impact on the improvement of social skills, it is expected to provide a certain theoretical basis for mental health guidance in colleges and universities. Methods Randomly select 100 teenagers diagnosed with social anxiety from a certain university. Participants were randomly assigned to the music therapy group, totaling 50 people, and the traditional therapy group, totaling 50 people. The music therapy group received an 8-week music therapy intervention, while the traditional treatment group received no intervention at all. Before and after the intervention, the social anxiety levels and social skills of the participants were evaluated using the Social Anxiety Scale and the Social Skills Scoring System. Results The improvement of social anxiety and social skills in each group is shown in Table 1. As can be seen from Table 1, the music therapy group showed significant improvements in both social anxiety and social skills (p<.01), and the social anxiety score decreased from 62.4 ± 6.1 before the intervention to 45.8 ± 5.3, while the social skills score increased from 28.7 ± 4.2 to 38.9 ± 4.6. Although the traditional treatment group had an improvement effect on teenagers' social anxiety and social skills, the improvement effect was poorer compared to the music therapy group. This result indicates that music therapy has a positive effect on alleviating social anxiety and enhancing social skills. Music therapy effectively improves social anxiety and social skills by providing a safe and supportive environment, enabling teenagers to express their emotions through music, enhance their self-awareness and social interaction skills. Discussion Research results show that music therapy can significantly improve the social skills of teenagers with social anxiety. The effect of music therapy stems from its unique emotional expression and social interaction mechanism, providing teenagers with a non-verbal communication method, which helps to reduce social anxiety and enhance social skills. Future research can further explore the long-term effects of music therapy and how to combine it with other treatment methods to provide more comprehensive mental health support. Furthermore, exploring the specific mechanisms by which music therapy affects social skills can provide valuable insights for the development of targeted intervention measures.

Background: Although Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by its persistent social deficits, the emotional processing abilities of individuals with ASD can improve over time with training. Virtual Reality (VR) technology is often reported as a tool that might help children and adolescents with ASD develop various social and emotional skills. However, despite several randomized controlled trials (RCTs) addressing its use, its efficacy in social and communication skills remains to be seen and will therefore be further investigated in this meta-analysis. Objective: To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to compare the effectiveness of virtual reality on social skills improvement compared to non-VR treatment in patients with ASD. Methods: We systematically searched Medline, Cochrane, and EMBASE databases for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published until May 16th, 2024. Outcomes of interest were changes in social and communication skills, measured by changes from baseline in the validated scores: Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC), Psychoeducational Profile (PEP-3) and Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale (VABS). All analyses were performed using Review Manager Software (v5.4). The effect sizes across studies were combined using the fixed-effect model, and the standardized mean difference (SMD) was used to combine the continuous outcomes. Results: Three RCTs were included in the meta-analysis, with a total of 167 patients, aged 3 to 12 years, of whom 77,2% were male and 54,5% underwent VR, which had a duration range of 3 to 5 months. Compared with the control groups (conventional therapy), the intervention group (adjunctive VR therapy) showed significant improvements in social skills (SMD 0.57, 95% CI 0.24 to 0.89, p= 0,0006). The studies did not report any major side effects. In the qualitative assessment, four studies were included, and they suggested that adjunctive virtual reality therapy in children and adolescents with ASD is associated with significant improvement in social communication skills, but not with imitation, social interaction, language, or primary emotion recognition skills. Conclusion: Our study suggests that adjunctive VR therapy improves social skills when compared to conventional therapy. Due to the limited sample size, further research should be considered to strengthen the best available options for improving social skills in children and adolescents with ASD.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that often begins in childhood and requires long-term treatment and management. Given the potential adverse effects of pharmacological interventions in children, interest in alternative treatments has increased. Among alternative therapies, serious games have emerged as a promising digital therapeutic approach and are increasingly recognized as an important intervention for children with ADHD. This systematic review aims to evaluate the effectiveness of serious games as digital therapeutics for children with ADHD. It focuses on assessing therapeutic outcomes, including improvements in attention, hyperactivity-impulsivity, social skills, motor skills, executive functions, and enjoyment. The review was conducted following PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines. A comprehensive literature search was performed across 5 databases: PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, IEEE Xplore, and ACM Digital Library, covering English studies published from January 2010 to January 2024. Eligibility criteria were established based on the PICOS (Participants, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes, Study design) framework, with digital therapeutics guidelines pragmatically applied to inform inclusion criteria, exclusion criteria, and quality assessment. Standardized tools including the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool for randomized controlled trials, the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool for Non-Randomized Studies of Interventions (ROBINS-I) for nonrandomized controlled trial studies, and the Critical Appraisal Skills Program checklists were used to evaluate risk of bias. Data on study design, targeted abilities, game software and hardware, and intervention parameters (duration, frequency, and length) were extracted and synthesized descriptively. Of the 35 studies identified (1408 participants), gender data were available for 22 studies (888 participants), comprising 660 male and 228 female participants. Analysis revealed multiple abilities focused across many studies: 80% (28/35) assessed attention, 29% (10/35) addressed hyperactivity-impulsivity, 17% (6/35) explored improvements in social skills, 20% (7/35) evaluated motor skills, and 43% (15/35) investigated executive functions. Furthermore, in 89% (31/35) of the trials, children exhibited a positive attitude toward game interventions. Evidence suggests that serious games may contribute to improvements in attention, hyperactivity-impulsivity, social skills, and executive functions in children with ADHD. Although findings on motor skills were inconclusive, interventions incorporating somatosensory inputs demonstrated benefits for hand-eye coordination. The findings support the potential of serious games as a digital therapeutic modality for children with ADHD, offering benefits in core symptoms and associated impairments while promoting engagement. PROSPERO CRD420250509693; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/view/CRD420250509693.

This chapter describes inquiry and learning in science and arts-based informal settings. Informal institutions, generally museums, galleries, zoos, and science centers, are designed to be interactive spaces that foster self-directed explorations and learning of different arts, exhibits, specimens, and materials on display. Observations, dialogues, and questioning approaches are generally used to facilitate inquiry-based learning in informal settings. In arts-based settings, the emphasis is on advancing visual literacy, and in science-based settings inquiry is used both as a pedagogical approach and as modeling scientific practice. In both kinds of settings, teacher learning and professional development is used to help teachers understand the process of inquiry and facilitate inquiry-based learning with students both in the classroom and in informal institutions. The challenge and the value of inquiry-based learning in informal settings is that conversations and trajectories can go in unexpected ways. It is important to continue to research inquiry and learning in informal settings, for example studying the kinds of questions and prompts that support productive conversation, the role of digital technologies in supporting learning, and, importantly, considering the sociocultural aspects of inquiry. Inquiry in informal settings supports diverse ways of accessing science and art.

Introduction by the column editors: Social skills training as a mode of treatment and rehabilitation of persons who have mental disabilities has been well documented for its efficacy in controlled clinical trials in the United States and in other countries (1). However, only a few attempts have been made to apply social skills training in the context of vocational rehabilitation (2–4). In a recent column, Wallace and colleagues (5) focused on one such effort—a module on workplace fundamentals— and presented data in support of the module’s utility in facilitating the job adjustment of persons who have serious mental illness (5). In this month’s column, Tsang describes a similar program in Hong Kong that is based on the principles of social skills training and that focuses on job search and job tenure for persons with schizophrenia who have a high level of functioning. This program, derived from the “job club” approach of Jacobs and colleagues

The article presents the results of an implementation diagnostic study. The implementation of the educational project Effective astonishment. Learning to read triggers thinking to read began in the local environment (Lodz) in the 2018/2019 school year. The research on children's learning skills in the process of identifying sound and graphic images, as well as reading and writing was carried out in a group of five hundred 5-6-year-old children in the 2021/2022 school year. The research adopted a didactic intervention model. The researcher acted as a participant observer, while the material came from participant observation. The observation was focused around the intervention activities designed in the innovative model of initial literacy learning. The observation covered students' activities, as well as the effects of these activities. The results of the study reconstructed the importance of the initiated educational environment in the process of triggering children's learning skills in identifying sound images of the voice and graphic images of the letter, synthesis and analysis, reading technique, reading comprehension and making meaning of graphic visualization.

Purpose: A repeated measures single-group feasibility study was used to investigate the potential success and feasibility of an adaptive climbing program including group social skills activities to positively impact social skills in children with developmental delays. Methods: A convenience sample of 10 children aged 4 to 12 years participated in six social skills activity groups and adaptive climbing sessions at a rock-climbing facility in North Carolina. Trained observers measured targeted social skills via an author-generated social skills tracking form. Results: A paired t-test indicates a statistically significant improvement in social skills from session 1 to session 6 (pConclusions: Outcomes suggest participation in a community-based adaptive climbing program that involves group social skills activities may be beneficial for promoting social skill development in children with developmental delays. Opportunities exist for occupational therapists to partner with climbing gyms or other organizations to develop and tailor programming specific to each child’s developmental level and needs.

Academic achievement gaps across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups are apparent as soon as children enter kindergarten: racial minorities, Hispanics, and poor children begin school at a distinct disadvantage compared to their White peers from middle- and high-income families (Chatterji, 2005; Fryer, Jr. & Levitt, 2004; Magnuson, Meyers, Ruhm, & Waldfogel, 2004; Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005; Reardon, 2011). To understand these gaps at kindergarten entry, it is essential that researchers understand the skills with which children enter kindergarten. Previous research on school readiness has been limited by variable-centered methods that separate components of school readiness (e.g., early academic skills, social skills, engagement). As each entering kindergartner possesses their own set of school readiness skills, it is not likely that school readiness skills are independent of one another. School readiness may be better conceptualized and measured as patterns of skills that children possess at the beginning of kindergarten. These detectable patterns of school readiness skills present at kindergarten entry may deferentially support development of academic and non-academic achievement outcomes, such that strengths can promote the development of weaker skills across the kindergarten year. Within the framework of Cognitive Load Theory (Sweller, 1994), this study investigated the nature of the relations among children's school readiness skills and their associations with development of academic, social, and engagement skills across the kindergarten year. This study used a person-centered analytic technique to identify profiles of school readiness present in entering kindergartners and explored the different developmental trajectories of academic, social, and engagement skills of children across these profiles. Five school readiness profiles were detected: 1) Scholastic, 2) On Par, 3) Room to Grow, 4) Super Regulator, and 5) Wiggler. Membership in these profiles was predicted by key demographic variables, and membership in profiles in turn uniquely predicted change in achievement outcomes across the kindergarten year. More specifically, children in the Super Regulator profile improved notably in academic skills, which were their weaker skills at school entry, but did not show improvement in social and engagement skills as a group across the year; children in the Wiggler profile showed moderate improvements in engagement skills, social skills, and self control across the year; children in the On Par profile showed no change in social and engagement skills, while showing the most improvement in math scores across all the profiles; the social and engagement skills of children in the Scholastic profile improved moderately, while their academic skills improved

Deficiency of attention and sensory overload have been well documented in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD); yet attention impairments could preclude children from developing social, cognitive and literacy skills. On the other hand, To address this limitation, virtual reality (VR)-mediated instruction could provide an isolated and focused learning space where noises can be faded out and in turn facilitate the integration of additional visual and auditory cues, thus improve children's learning skills. Unfortunately, most of the prior works of VR-based applications had focused on constructing a safe controllable immersive environment to enable children with ASD to develop useful social and communication skills; published research along this path is even rare in mainland China, which motivates our on-going research. In particular, in this short paper, we report a qualitative observation of the acceptability of such an application in trials involving a twelve-year old boy with high-functioning autism (though is now in a public school) and his mother. Although it is their first encounter with such a technology, and both show high enthusiasm on it; but when it comes to its deployment, mixed results were obtained.

This research is based on the problem of the still low social and speaking skills of children, and in general the problem of this research is "How to improve children's social and speaking skills through the application of role playing methods in the MA Assyafiiyah NW Penangsak?" the following: (1) What are the conditions of social skills and speaking skills of children before they are applied to the role playing method or role playing at the MA Assyafiiyah NW Penangsak? (2) What is the process of applying role playing methods in improving children's social skills and speaking skills at MA Assyafiiyah NW Penangsak? (3) To what extent is the improvement of social skills and speaking skills of MA Assyafiiyah NW Penangsak children after role playing or role playing methods are applied? and (4) What obstacles did the teacher experience in applying the role playing method or role playing? The goal to be achieved is to get an idea of improving social skills and speaking skills of children at MA Assyafiiyah NW Penangsak through the application of role playing methods. The research method used is Classroom Action Research (CAR) to improve the learning process of social skills and children's speaking skills through the application of role playing methods. PTK was conducted in three cycles, with the subject of children B group MA Assyafiiyah NW Penangsak, amounting to 10 children. From the results of the implementation and observations made, there was a significant increase, especially in cycle two. It is recommended for teachers so that social skills and speaking skills are further developed, both in learning, implementation and evaluation of learning. For further researchers, it is expected to be able to make research on social skills and speaking children through other methods.

The effect of problem-based learning (PBL) applications in an undergraduate biochemistry course on students’ interest in this course was investigated through four modules during one semester. Students’ views about active learning and improvement in social skills were also collected and evaluated. We conducted the study with 36 senior students from the Faculty of Science at Dokuz Eylul University in Turkey. Pre- and post-tests were the primary tools used in this study and the Problem-Based Learning Assessment Scale was applied after each module to assess the students’ views about the applications. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to determine students’ pre- and post- attitudes toward the biochemistry course. According to the results, problem quality played an important role in students’ academic achievement. The decreased orientation role played by the tutor toward the end of the PBL process showed that students could find the necessary information by investigating themselves, and associate new information and experiences with their existing knowledge. Additionally, results of semi-structured interviews indicated that their skills in the areas of working collaboratively in a group, fulfilling responsibilities and expression of ideas in a group also improved. In conclusion, it can be argued that PBL as an active learning approach is very effective for formation of knowledge, improvement in social skills and interest in a biochemistry course.

Environmental variables related to the home context, including home literacy and numeracy, screen exposure and Socioeconomic Status (SES) are potential risks or protective factors for children's academic achievements and behaviour. The present multi-informant study aims to contribute to this issue by investigating SES's direct and indirect relationships in early learning (i.e., literacy, numeracy, and cognitive) and behavioural skills within a large sample of young children. One parent and one teacher for each of 1660 preschoolers filled out a questionnaire investigating SES, tablet and TV use, home learning activities, behavioural problems/strengths (parents' questionnaire), and children's learning skills and behaviour (teachers' questionnaire). Results of path analysis showed that tablet time and home learning environment mediate the effect of SES on early learning as assessed by teachers; as for the home learning environment, it was also a mediator of the relationship between SES and behavioural problems. Implications of these results for research in the field and educational policies are discussed.

Summary. This follow‐on study investigates the learning skills and scholastic attainments of about half of an original cohort of over 2,000 children. The earlier study, when the children were 5 and 6 years old, found observed learning skills to be as predictive of attainment one year later as were IQ scores (Stott et al., 1983a). The follow‐up when the children were 9 and 10 years old adopts the earlier experimental design, comparing learning skills with attainments. It also relates early learning skills with attainments four years later. The results and teachers' comments indicate that learning skills strongly influence a child's attainments and that the GCLS (Guide to the Child's Learning Skills) has a contribution to make in the on‐going monitoring of children's learning behaviours.

Relations among motor, social, and cognitive skills in pre-kindergarten children with developmental disabilities

An Initial Pilot Study Examining Child Social Skills, Caregiver Styles, and Family Functioning in the PEERS® for Preschoolers Program for Young Autistic Children and their Caregivers