Eye Contact Conditioning in Autistic Children Using Virtual Reality Technology

Children afflicted with developmental disabilities, namely autism, suffer from a natural aversion to dyadic (i.e., eye-to-eye) contact. Research has shown this aversion to be an early indicator of slower development of linguistic skills, a narrow vocabulary, as well as social issues later in life. In addition, this aversion may also result in the loss of already acquired abilities such as language and life skills. Consequently, manual prompt techniques have been adopted to address this issue. However, they are plagued with some inherent flaws: (i) the teacher must make unnatural movements when using a manual prompt such as gesturing towards the face; (ii) The child’s attention will follow this prompt as it is removed from the face defeating the purpose as it detracts the child’s attention from the teacher’s eyes. To tackle these issues we have developed a system that can utilize effective prompt methodologies aimed at conditioning these children to establish and maintain dyadic contact. Our system not only reduces, but eliminates shortcomings present in the current manual method. This is accomplished through the use of a stereo camera and virtual reality headset to augment the child’s vision when eye contact is not being established. The prompt is displayed in the child’s vision over the eyes of the teacher to attract their attention. Once dyadic contact has been ascertained, the prompt is gradually fading leaving the child only to focus on the eyes of the teacher as is needed.