Motor learning and transfer between real and virtual environments in young people with autism spectrum disorder: A prospective randomized cross over controlled trial.
Virtual motor practice boosts real-world motor skill acquisition for youth with ASD more than for typically developing peers.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers compared two ways to teach a timing task to youth with autism.
One group practiced on a real keyboard. The other group practiced the same timing game on a Kinect virtual screen.
After the practice round, every child tried the real keyboard task to see if the skills carried over.
What they found
The kids who trained in virtual space did better on the real task than the kids who trained on the real task first.
The jump was biggest for the autism group. Their typically developing peers improved too, but not as much.
How this fits with other research
de Mello Monteiro et al. (2014) saw the opposite pattern in youth with cerebral palsy. Those kids learned the virtual timing game, yet the skill never showed up on the real task.
The difference is not the gear; it is the diagnosis. Autism brains seem to lock virtual timing into real muscle memory, while cerebral palsy brains do not.
Taylor et al. (2017) and EbrahimiSani et al. (2020) back this up. Both used Kinect or VR games with autism or DCD groups and saw real-world gains after virtual practice.
Why it matters
If you run motor labs or social-skills groups, start the session with a quick Kinect warm-up. Five minutes of virtual timing can prime real-world coordination. It is cheap, fun, and the data say it sticks better for kids with ASD.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction, including impaired multisensory integration, which might negatively impact cognitive and motor skill performance, and hence negatively affect learning of tasks. Considering that tasks in virtual environment may provide an engaging tool as adjuncts to conventional therapies, we set out to compare motor performance between young people with ASD and a typically developing (TD) control group that underwent coincident timing tasks based on Kinect (no physical contact) and on Keyboard (with physical contact) environments. Using a randomized repeated cross-over controlled trial design, 50 young people with ASD and 50 with TD, matched by age and sex were divided into subgroups of 25 people that performed the two first phases of the study (acquisition and retention) on the same device-real or virtual-and then switched to the other device to repeat acquisition and retention phases and finally switched on to a touch screen (transfer phase). Results showed that practice in the virtual task was more difficult (producing more errors), but led to a better performance in the subsequent practice in the real task, with more pronounced improvement in the ASD as compared to the TD group. It can be concluded that the ASD group managed to transfer the practice from a virtual to a real environment, indicating that virtual methods may enhance learning of motor and cognitive skills. A need for further exploration of its effect across a number of tasks and activities is warranted. Autism Res 2020, 13: 307-319. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: Individuals with autism spectrum disorder are known to have difficulties with learning motor tasks. Considering that performing motor tasks in virtual environment may be an engaging tool as adjuncts to conventional therapies, we aimed to estimate performance in tasks regardless of physical touch. Results showed that participants had more difficulty using the non-touch task; however, virtual training improved performance on the physical (real) task. This result indicates that virtual methods could be a promising therapeutic approach for the ASD population.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2020 · doi:10.1002/aur.2208