Using virtual reality environment to improve joint attention associated with pervasive developmental disorder.
Virtual reality with a data glove teaches kids with autism to point, look, and share, and the skill carries over to real life.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Six children with pervasive developmental disorder practiced joint attention in a virtual room.
They wore a data glove that let them point and touch objects on the screen.
The program gave praise when the child looked, pointed, and shared about the same toy.
Sessions happened twice a week until each child hit mastery.
What they found
All six kids learned to look, point, and share faster than before.
Parents later said the children used the same skills at home and at school.
Skills kept up four weeks after the last VR lesson.
How this fits with other research
McGonigle et al. (2014) and Miller et al. (2020) show the same VR idea works for older ages and new goals.
They moved from child joint attention to adult job interviews and preschool airport trips.
Park et al. (2023) used a similar VR set-up but trained motor skills, not social ones.
Their mixed results remind us VR helps only when the task matches the practice.
Why it matters
You can borrow the glove-and-praise setup for any shared attention goal.
Try a short VR warm-up before table-top joint attention drills.
Track if the child points and looks in the headset first, then test it with real toys.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The focus of this study is using data glove to practice Joint attention skill in virtual reality environment for people with pervasive developmental disorder (PDD). The virtual reality environment provides a safe environment for PDD people. Especially, when they made errors during practice in virtual reality environment, there is no suffering or dangerous consequences to deal with. Joint attention is a critical skill in the disorder characteristics of children with PDD. The absence of joint attention is a deficit frequently affects their social relationship in daily life. Therefore, this study designed the Joint Attention Skills Learning (JASL) systems with data glove tool to help children with PDD to practice joint attention behavior skills. The JASL specifically focus the skills of pointing, showing, sharing things and behavior interaction with other children with PDD. The system is designed in playroom-scene and presented in the first-person perspectives for users. The functions contain pointing and showing, moving virtual objects, 3D animation, text, speaking sounds, and feedback. The method was employed single subject multiple-probe design across subjects' designs, and analysis of visual inspection in this study. It took 3 months to finish the experimental section. Surprisingly, the experiment results reveal that the participants have further extension in improving the joint attention skills in their daily life after using the JASL system. The significant potential in this particular treatment of joint attention for each participant will be discussed in details in this paper.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2012 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2012.05.023