Association for Behavior Analysis International

Children with autism spectrum disorder may have challenges socially connecting to others. They may be unsure of how to react to other people’s emotions, facial expressions, and movements of their body or how to respond to various social circumstances. Restrictive patterns of behaviors or the need for sameness may result in safety concerns when it comes to street crossing or riding in cars. All of these may impact a person’s overall life quality. Virtual reality (VR) has demonstrated effectiveness in addressing some life skill development. This panel will provide a brief summary of the recent review studies regarding neurodiverse populations. The panel will discuss the collaboration and strategic partnership to develop custom content and how that process works including meeting patient and provider needs and demonstrating the experience with VR in practice. Three VR modules will be reviewed, all in different stages of development and research – one focused on building social skills, one surrounding safe street crossing, and one around safely riding in cars. All VR modules are created based on the principles of behavior analysis and the panelist will discuss the use of the modules during therapy sessions.

ABA treatment planning Generalization strategies Basic understanding of virtual reality Group learning strategies