This review evaluates the clinical efficacy of virtual reality as a behavioral modification tool to teach and support the social-communication needs of ASD children.

Autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) characterizes a taxonomy of disorders affecting social communication and interactive behaviors. Researchers in affective computing have begun to use virtual reality as a therapy tool for autistic individuals. This technology has demonstrated significant potential as our understanding of the social-communication deficits in autism increases. We conducted a literature review investigating the efficacy of virtual reality as an intervention for autism.  

A search was conducted using Google Scholar, PubMed, IEEE Xplore, CDC, and the National Autism Center databases. The search keywords were: “Affective computing Autism” OR “Affective computing ASD”. 

Five articles were included in our analysis.

Emotional facial expression recognition tasks: ASD Children demonstrated significant increases in paired t-tests comparisons of pre and post-training performance in NEPSYII Affect recognition t(24)= -3.40, p=0.001 and Attention and executive function “Fluid reasoning” t(17)=-2.33, p=0.016. Significant increases were noted on the pre-training assessment for social attribution Triangles intentionality t(23) =-2.28, p=0.016. 88% of participants accurately identified the emotional expressions portrayed by a virtual avatar.

Emotional regulation tasks: VRE therapy yielded results that persisted 12 to 16 months after treatment. 89% of children were able to diminish phobia-induced anxiety and four children overcame their phobias.

Virtual reality receptivity in ASD:  Virtual embodied agents effectively elicited continued affective and social conversational behaviors in ASD children for approximately 60 minutes.  ASD children also reported significantly higher ratings of enjoyability t(38)= 2.26; P= 0.03)) while using virtual technology compared to experimental controls.

Use of virtual reality as a tool for behavioral modification revealed positive application with enduring results, by demonstrating: (1) conversational spontaneity, (2) social appraisal, (3) emotional recognition, (4) anxiety and fear reduction, and (5) social-skill acquisition in autistic children.