Immersive Technology to Teach Social Skills to Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Literature Review
Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Mosher, M. A., Carreon, A. C., et al. (2022).
Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 9(3), 334-350.
This systematic review examines the effects of social skills interventions using immersive technologies for school-aged students on the autism spectrum. These immersive technologies include augmented, virtual, mixed, and extended reality.
Not stated
2000 to 2020
Peer-reviewed studies with single subject, qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods
41
Social skills interventions using immersive technologies were associated with mixed results for school-aged children on the autism spectrum. Fifteen of 41 studies (37%) showed significant gains in targeted social skills such as relationship skills, emotional recognition, social awareness, and cooperation. Specific findings were as follows:<br />
<ul>
<li><strong>Augmentative reality</strong>: Four out of 5 (80%) studies showed significant gains in targeted social skills.</li>
<li><strong>Immersive virtual reality</strong>: Five out of 10 (50%) studies showed significant improvements in social skills. The remaining studies had mixed results (3 studies) or no statistical improvement (2 studies).</li>
<li><strong>Non-immersive virtual reality</strong>: Six out of 26 (23%) studies demonstrated significant improvements in targeted social skills. </li>
<li><strong>Parent- and clinician-reported outcomes:</strong> Parents, clinicians, and researchers reported improved social skills in 32 of 41 (83%) studies.</li>
<li><strong>Generalization</strong>: Fifteen out of 19 (79%) studies reported generalization to real-world environments.</li>
<li><strong>Maintenance</strong>: Eleven out of 13 (85%) studies reported maintenance of gains at follow-up. </li>
</ul>
The review found no studies using extended or mixed reality technologies. Limitations to this review include an overall lack of reliance on norm-referenced assessments, the lack of investigation of included studies' quality, and differences between studies regarding the definition of social skills categories, the intervention techniques utilized, and the social skills targeted. Further, high-quality research is indicated.
