Virtual Reality training in work related skills for Individuals with Autism Erasmus Project

Project Title

Virtual Reality training in work related skills for Individuals with Autism

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Disabilities – special needs

Project Summary

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with prevalence rates of 1 in 68 individuals. ASD manifests with a lack of social and communication skills and the presentation of repetitive and/or restrictive patterns of behaviors. Individuals with ASD face important challenges in their social encounters due to a lack of intuitive social ability. This lack usually emerges early in development and usually is manifested as a lack of interest in social interaction or pronounced awkwardness which results in a lack of engagement in activities that promote social integration.

Most children with a diagnosis of autism in childhood or adolescence receive high quality services either in the form of individualised educational support or in the form of speech therapy, occupational therapy or psychological and psychiatric support – if needed. Once they reach adulthood their lack of a flexible repertoire of social behaviors makes it difficult to adapt to a complex social environment. In addition to that autistic adults have no where to turn to because services are mainly geared towards children and adolescents. Lacking the necessary support and the interpersonal skills to adapt to a complex social environment most individuals “fail to launch” and may start to manifest signs of a mental distress and eventually, mental disorder. This realisation of the lack of services for adult high functioning autistic individuals was the impetus for developing the idea for the project Working Through.

The main objective of the project was to offer a high quality learning opportunity in work related skills for high functioning autistic individuals through the use of Virtual Reality (VR) technology by using social scripts to impart “soft” skills (interpersonal, communication skills) in increasingly challenging work environments. The project was highly innovative in that it supplied a high quality learning opportunity through the use of Virtual Reality (VR) technology by simulating a working environment manipulated by experienced trainers in a way that put the autistic individual in potential social situations that may cause awkwardness and/or elicit a non productive, insensitive or off-putting response. The simulated VR environment presented with opportunities for training “soft” (conversational, empathizing, turn-taking, socially responsive, conflict resolution at work) skills by specifically addressing the deficits identified in the social behavior of the participants. The objective was achieved in that all autistic participants realized benefits in their social skills repertoire and the expert trainers gained valuable experience in using the VR environment to effect behavior change.

There were four groups of participants, one in each country with a total of 36 individuals participating in the pilot trials (9 in Greece, 10 in Denmark, 10 in Ireland and 7 in Cyprus). All individuals had received a diagnosis of ASD, either in childhood or as a young adult.

DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES
The training regiment in this project was defined by the pedagogical framework which set the theoretical foundations, the instructional means and success criteria of the training program. This allowed for the development of the curriculum which specified the teaching materials and activities that would define the kinds of materials and activities that would constitute the training program. The curriculum set the framework for the development of the social scripts with the kinds of training opportunities described in the curriculum. A VR environment was created that provided the learning opportunities in the form of social scripts . Finally the autistic participants received VR based work related social skills training with the guidance of an expert who provided scaffolded instruction tailored to the rate of progress of each participant.

IMPACT
There was success in proving the concept of using VR to impart skills to individuals who lack work related social skills (Proof of concept). All autistic participants felt comfortable in using the VR headset and there were no cases of nausea or discomfort. The training program was successful in that all participants realized benefits from their participation in terms of acquiring or improving on work related social skills. All post- training learning indices were positive and most participants expressed interest in participating in other training activities using VR. In terms of long term benefits the project managed to bring together technology experts from the field of Virtual Reality with experts from the fields of education and mental health and kindled the interest of a potential future collaborations by extending the newfound know how in helping people with other mental disorders such as social anxiety and phobias. Finally, it set the path for similar undertakings by providing the principles and the means of developing a VR based training program.

Project Website

http://www.workingthrough.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 264520,5 Eur

Project Coordinator

HABILIS MONOPROSOPI IKE & Country: EL

Project Partners

• SPECIALISTERNE FOUNDATION
• M.M.C MANAGEMENT CENTER LIMITED
• THEOFANIS ALEXANDRIDIS KAI SIA EE
• KYPRIAKI ETAIREIA PISTOPOIISIS LIMITED
• NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND GALWAY