DEVELOPING VIRTUAL REALITY INSTRUCTION FOR AUTISM

该项目的总体目标是为自闭症儿童开发一种商业上可行的虚拟现实教学辅助工具，并展示其有效性。具体目标是：(1)在第一阶段开发的系统的基础上，为自闭症儿童建立一个基于计算机的家庭VR系统。(2)在家长和教育工作者定义为关键的领域开发教学软件；安全、社交和语言发展。(3)演示教学软件的有效性。(4)论证虚拟现实教学比传统教学更具优势。(5)证明教学工具在课堂上很容易使用。实现这些目标的方法是：(1)选择被诊断为自闭症的学校系统中的儿童。(2)为第一阶段开发的虚拟现实软件程序将进行修改，以提供关键的学习环境。(3)应用行为分析和单学科设计将被用来证明虚拟现实教学的有效性和优势，并在以下方面与传统技术进行比较：(A)学习生活技能时增加安全性，(B)减少教学所需的工作人员时间，(C)减少教学过程中儿童的注意力分散，以及(D)减少学习技能所需的时间。(4)将在教室内进行实地测试，以证明教师而不是研究人员使用的教学仍然有效。拟议的商业应用：虚拟现实作为一种针对有心理健康需求的个人的教育和治疗工具，目前正由世界各地的100多所大学和医疗中心进行评估。一种可以提供减少学习技能时间的治疗的产品将在父母、学校、治疗师和医院中畅销。

The broad objectives of the project are to develop a commercially feasible virtual reality instructional aid for children with autism and demonstrate efficacy. Specific aims are: (1) Build a home computer-based VR system for children with autism based on the system developed in Phase I. (2) Develop instructional software in areas that parents and educators have defined as critical; safety, social interaction, and language development. (3) Demonstrate the efficacy of the instructional software. (4) Demonstrate that VR-delivered instructional provides advantages over conventional instruction. (5) Demonstrate that the instructional tools are easily used in classrooms. Methods for achieving the goals are: (1) Children in the school system who have been diagnosed with autism will be chosen. (2) The VR software program developed for Phase I will be modified to provide the critical learning environments. (3) Applied behavior analysis and single subject design will be used to document the efficacy and advantages of VR instruction and to establish a comparison to conventional techniques in techniques in terms of (a) increased safety when learning living skills, (b) reduction in staff time needed for instruction, (c) decreased distractibility in children during instruction, and (d) decreased time needed to learn a skill. (4) Field tests will be conducted in the classrooms to document that instruction remain effective when used by teachers rather than research personnel. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: Virtual reality as an educational and treatment tool for individuals with mental health needs is now being evaluated by more than 100 university and medial centers around the world. A product which could provide treatment that reduces learning skills time would be marketable to parents, schools, therapists and hospitals.