Abstract
Learners with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) are often characterized as having deficits in core social competencies affecting ability to communicate and interact with other people across multiple contexts. However, such deficit views of ASC lead to narrow interventions that cannot be generalized to wider learning contexts nor the real world. Taking a non-deficit view can offer a means of broadening understanding of ASC by taking a more holistic view of an individual. Thoughtfully designed VR solutions that take a non-deficit view can provide learning tools allow learners to develop their self-determination awareness and skills such as decision-making, self-advocacy, reflective problem-solving. Furthermore, through the use of machine learning approaches such solutions have the potential to provide real-time monitoring of learners during interaction offering a holistic understanding of individuals with ASC. This position paper sets out the support case for utilizing VR through non-deficit models and examines the role machine learning can play in further understanding of learners with ASC. It is intended that this sets out a case for future research directions.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bian, D., et al.: A novel virtual reality driving environment for autism intervention. In: Stephanidis, C., Antona, M. (eds.) UAHCI 2013. LNCS, vol. 8010, pp. 474–483. Springer, Heidelberg (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39191-0_52
Bölte, S.: Is autism curable? Dev. Med. Child Neurol. 56(10), 927–931 (2014)
Bozgeyikli, L., Raij, A., Katkoori, S., Alqasemi, R.: A survey on virtual reality for individuals with autism spectrum disorder: design considerations. IEEE Trans. Learn. Technol. 11(2), 133–151 (2017)
Carter, E.W., Owens, L., Trainor, A.A., Sun, Y., Swedeen, B.: Self-determination skills and opportunities of adolescents with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities. Am. J. Intellect. Dev. Disabil. 114, 179–192 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1352/1944-7558-114.3.179
Didehbani, N., Allen, T., Kandalaft, M., Krawczyk, D., Chapman, S.: Virtual reality social cognition training for children with high functioning autism. Comput. Hum. Behav. 62, 703–711 (2016)
Dinishak, J.: The deficit view and its critics. Disabil. Stud. Q. 36(4) (2016). ISSN 2159-8371 (Online), 1041-5718 (Print)
Fowler, C.: Virtual reality and learning: where is the pedagogy? Br. J. Edu. Technol. 46(2), 412–422 (2015)
Ghanouni, P., Jarus, T., Zwicker, J.G., Lucyshyn, J., Mow, K., Ledingham, A.: Social stories for children with autism spectrum disorder: validating the content of a virtual reality program. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 49(2), 660–668 (2019)
Halabi, O., El-Seoud, S.A., Alja'am, J.M., Alpona, H., Al-Hemadi, M., Al-Hassan, D.: Design of immersive virtual reality system to improve communication skills in individuals with autism. Int. J. Emerg. Technol. Learn. 12(5) (2017)
Herrero, J.F., Lorenzo, G.: An immersive virtual reality educational intervention on people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) for the development of communication skills and problem solving. Educ. Inf. Technol. 25(3), 1689–1722 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-019-10050-0
Hughes-Roberts, T., et al.: Examining engagement and achievement in learners with individual needs through robotic-based teaching sessions. Br. J. Edu. Technol. 50(5), 2736–2750 (2019)
Ke, F., Moon, J., Sokolikj, Z.: Virtual reality-based social skills training for children with autism spectrum disorder. J. Spec. Educ. Technol. (2020). https://doi.org/10.1177/0162643420945603
Lahiri, U., Bekele, E., Dohrmann, E., Warren, Z., Sarkar, N.: Design of a virtual reality based adaptive response technology for children with autism. IEEE Trans. Neural Syst. Rehabil. Eng. 21(1), 55–64 (2012)
Marín-Morales, J., et al.: Affective computing in virtual reality: emotion recognition from brain and heartbeat dynamics using wearable sensors. Sci. Rep. 8(1), 1–15 (2018)
Mesa-Gresa, P., Gil-Gómez, H., Lozano-Quilis, J.A., Gil-Gómez, J.A.: Effectiveness of virtual reality for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder: an evidence-based systematic review. Sensors 18(8), 2486 (2018)
Mitchell, P., Parsons, S., Leonard, A.: Using virtual environments for teaching social understanding to 6 adolescents with autistic spectrum disorders. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 37(3), 589–600 (2007)
Pan, X., Gillies, M., Slater, M.: Virtual character personality influences participant attitudes and behavior–an interview with a virtual human character about her social anxiety. Front. Robot. AI 2, 1 (2015)
Pan, X., et al.: The responses of medical general practitioners to unreasonable patient demand for antibiotics-a study of medical ethics using immersive virtual reality. PloS ONE 11(2) (2016)
Parsons, S.: Authenticity in virtual reality for assessment intervention in autism: a conceptual review. Educ. Res. Rev. 19, 138–157 (2016)
Parsons, S., Cobb, S.: State-of-the-art of virtual reality technologies for children on the autism spectrum. Eur. J. Spec. Needs Educ. 26(3), 355–366 (2011)
Parsons, S., Leonard, A., Mitchell, P.: Virtual environments for social skills training: comments from two adolescents with autistic spectrum disorder. Comput. Educ. 47(2), 186–206 (2006)
Parsons, S., Yuill, N., Good, J., Brosnan, M.: “Whose agenda? Who knows best? Whose voices?”: co-creating a technology research roadmap with autism stakeholders. Disabil. Soc. 35(2), 201–234 (2020)
Rosqvist, H.B., Stenning, A., Chown, N.: Introduction. In: Stenning, A., Rosqvist, H. B., Chown, N. (eds.) Neurodiversity Studies. Taylor and Francis, Milton Park (2020)
Robertson, S.M.: Neurodiversity, quality of life, and autistic adults: shifting research and professional focuses onto real life challenges. Disabil. Stud. Q. 30(1) (2010)
Standen, P.J., et al.: An evaluation of an adaptive learning system based on multimodal affect recognition for learners with intellectual disabilities. Br. J. Educ. Technol. (2020)
Stewart Rosenfield, N., Lamkin, K., Re, J., Day, K., Boyd, L., Linstead, E.: A virtual reality system for practicing conversation skills for children with autism. Multimodal Technol. Interact. 3(2), 28 (2019)
Taheri, M.H., Brown, D.J., Sherkat, N.: Modeling engagement with multimodal multisensor data: the continuous performance test as an objective tool to track flow. Int. J. Comput. Inf. Eng. 14(6), 197–208 (2020)
Torous, J., et al.: The growing field of digital psychiatry: current evidence and the future of apps, social media, chatbots, and virtual reality. World Psychiatry 20(3), 318–335 (2021)
Yuan, S.N.V., Ip, H.H.S.: Using virtual reality to train emotional and social skills in children with autism spectrum disorder. Lond. J. Prim. Care 10(4), 110–112 (2018)
Zhang, L., Warren, Z., Swanson, A., Weitlauf, A., Sarkar, N.: Understanding performance and verbal-communication of children with ASD in a collaborative virtual environment. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 48(8), 2779–2789 (2018)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Hughes-Roberts, T., Cui, V., Mahmud, M., Brown, D.J. (2022). Leveraging Virtual Reality and Machine Learning as Mediated Learning Tools for Social Skill Development in Learners with Autism Spectrum Condition. In: Antona, M., Stephanidis, C. (eds) Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. User and Context Diversity. HCII 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13309. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05039-8_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05039-8_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-05038-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-05039-8
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)