On School-sites Virtual Reality-based Training Program for social adaptive and emotional training on children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (vPAD-II)

CityU vPAD-II project harnesses the unique benefits of virtual reality and related augmented technologies to design and produce authentic immersive training scenarios for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to acquire and practice certain generic skills. vPAD-II immersive training programme utilizes virtual reality technology with interactional devices to facilitate children with ASD to acquire skills for emotional regulation including self-awareness, recognition and expression of emotion. The training programme also aims to develop their generic skill on complying with basic social rules in common social situations, promote the generalization of their adopted social skills to new social situations.

vPAD-II program is conducted by an inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional team of educational and developmental psychologists, behavioural paediatrician and computer scientist; and will harness the unique benefits of virtual reality and related augmented technologies to provide relevant authentic training scenarios for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) students on-sites at the participating schools to acquire and practice the essential skills. vPAD-II aims to utilizing virtual reality technology with interactional devices to facilitate students with ASD to acquire skills for emotional regulation including self-awareness, recognition and expression of emotion. The goals of the project also include of developing their generic skill on complying with basic social rules in common social situations, promoting the generalization of their adopted social skills to new social situations, and also developing a psycho-educational programme for training social adaptive and emotional control for children with ASD to be deployed on school-site.

vPAD-II Project Objectives

I.Build upon the positive outcomes of vPAD program to benefit more ASD students
II.Adapt vPAD psycho-educational protocol to portable VR system→Head-mounted display（HMD）
III.Delivering vPAD-II programme on school-site to facilitate ASD children to acquire emotional regulation and social skills
IV.Provide on school-site training to professional staff, to facilitate sustainable ASD students’ training through VR.

vPAD-II Champion Training Program for Teachers and Professional Staff

Leadership training program is to identify and train keen participants in our vPAD-II Program (ie) teachers / professional staff at our partner schools. Trainees in the vPAD-II CTP will be trained to carry out the vPAD-II training Protocol, be equipped with essential training capabilities in order to independently carry out vPAD-II trainings with the students and take this program forward post our project. Such duties will entail working with ASD children/youth, being a resource for teachers working with ASD children/youth, and being a part of a team to carry out and sustain the program in schools after the project ends.

Objective: To provide the necessary knowledge and skills needed to facilitate students to enhance their learning abilities and social skills, as well as fully being aware of the resources and facility available in the vPAD-II VR environment.

Training Modules

5 modules with a total of 8 learning scenarios have been developed with progressing levels of difficulty and variations / challenges

Module 1 – Introduction	Four seasons: VRLE navigation (& relaxation)	2 sessions
Module 2 – Executive Functioning	Home: Greeting & cognitive flexibility	3 sessions
Module 2 – Executive Functioning	School bus and classroom: Following directions	3 sessions
Module 3 – Emotions	Library: Social norms & emotion regulation	5 sessions
Module 3 – Emotions	Art class: Emotion recognition	5 sessions
Module 4 – Social skills	Tuck shop: Reciprocal communication	5 sessions
Module 4 – Social skills	P.E. class: Conflict resolution	5 sessions
Module 5 - Consolidation	Fun fair: All previous objectives	2 sessions