Head-Mounted Display-Based Virtual Reality Social Story as a Tool to Teach Social Skills to Children Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder

In this paper, we present a study conducted to investigate the feasibility of using a HeadMounted Display (HMD) based Virtual Reality (VR) application as a tool to teach social skills to children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In collaboration with teachers at a school for children and adolescents diagnosed with mental disorders, an HMD VR based social story application was developed with the purpose of teaching children diagnosed with ASD about sharing, turn taking, and theory of mind. Via a Mixed Method Sequential Explanatory Design, the application was evaluated by two teachers who conducted social story sessions on a total of five students diagnosed with ASD. Results indicate that HMD based VR intervention has the potential of teaching appropriate social behavior.

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