Virtual Reality and Web Tools for Children with FAS/FAE

描述(申请人提供)：胎儿酒精综合症和胎儿酒精影响(Fas/FAE)是一系列不可逆的出生缺陷，在个人的一生中持续存在。由于发育迟缓和抽象思维缺陷，患有这些障碍的儿童可能会错过因果之间的联系，这往往会导致危险的行为和与环境的危险遭遇。第二阶段建议开发虚拟现实安全技能培训计划，帮助有这些特殊学习需求的儿童更好地理解和练习正确的安全行动。它将使用一系列虚拟场景来模拟危险的真实场景。第一阶段的所有四个里程碑都达到了。这些措施包括：(1)建立针对Fas/FAE儿童的特殊学习需求的程序设计；(2)开发虚拟现实程序、世界和角色来教授针对这些特殊学习需求的家庭消防安全动作；(3)展示该程序在家用PC上的可玩性，以建立商业可行性；以及(4)在患有这种疾病的儿童中测试该程序。使用多基线、多探针设计，对5名被诊断为胎儿酒精相关障碍的儿童进行了该计划的有效性测试。结果表明，所有儿童在虚拟世界中对火灾安全组件的识别达到100%的准确率，即在虚拟世界中进行正确的安全步骤，其中80%的儿童能够在虚拟培训后的现实世界中在概括和后续探测中正确执行所有动作。第二阶段将把第一阶段中开发的学习概念扩展到最终的安全技能培训计划产品，以便在家用PC上进行游戏。它将包括安全模块、集成的安全游戏和支持工具，以允许儿童在受控的虚拟世界中练习正确的安全动作，并帮助儿童将这些动作推广到现实世界。该计划的有效性将在30名患有胎儿酒精相关障碍的4至10岁儿童中进行测试。第二阶段将利用双向方差分析(ANOVA)来检测接受不同选定安全技能培训的小组之间的差异。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAS/FAE) are a series of irreversible birth defects that persist throughout the life span of the individual. Because of developmental delays and deficits in abstract thinking, children with these disorders can miss the connection between cause and effect, which often results in risky behaviors and dangerous encounters with their environment. Phase II proposes to develop a virtual reality Safety Skills Training Program to help children with these special learning needs better understand and practice correct safety actions. It will use a series of virtual situations that model hazardous real-life situations. All four milestones in Phase I were met. These included: (1) establishing the program design for the special learning requirements of children with FAS/FAE, (2) developing a virtual reality program, worlds, and characters to teach home fire safety actions, customized for these special learning needs, (3) demonstrating the playability of the program on a home PC to establish commercial viability, and (4) testing the program with children with this disorder. Efficacy of the program was tested using a multiple baseline, multiple probe design, with five children who had been diagnosed with fetal alcohol related disorders. The results indicated that all the children reached 100% accuracy in identifying fire safety components, defined as doing the correct safety steps in the virtual world, and that eighty percent of these children were able to perform all actions correctly in both generalization and follow-up probes in the real world following virtual training. Phase II will extend the learning concepts developed in Phase I to a final Safety Skills Training Program product to be delivered for game play on a home PC. It will include safety modules, an integrated safety game, and support tools to allow a child to practice correct safety actions in controlled virtual worlds and to help the child generalize these actions to the real world. Program efficacy will be measured with thirty children ages four to ten years old with fetal alcohol related disorders. Phase II will utilize a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to detect differences between groups trained on different selected safety skills.