Abstract:

Technology is one of the tools that has more presence in our society. In recent years its greater diffusion is due to the use of emerging technologies such as virtual reality or augmented reality. Virtual reality provides safe environments with 3D information where the user can perform tasks without suffering the consequences of real environments. This characteristic makes it the tool best suited to the needs of autistic students. As a consequence, the objective of the research is the application of virtual reality for the improvement of receptive communication in autistic students. With this objective in mind, 11 sessions were carried out with the oculus quest 2 glasses where social skills were worked on in school environments with 4 autistic students over a period of two months. The Denver questionnaire was used as a measurement tool, which was filled out before and after the intervention by the researchers. The results showed that subject 3 was the one who showed improvements in the greatest number of items, with 2, 4, 9 . In this sense, item means the behaviour we wish to assess in the child using the questionnaire. For example, there have been improvements in item 2 which refers to the user being able to look towards vocal game sounds. Item 4 indicates the following: Looks at pictures indicated to him/her when the adult points to them in a book. While item 9 expresses the following: Follows a distant pointing directed at an object. On the other hand, neither item 1 nor item 4 have experienced improvements due to the work of virtual reality in receptive communication. As future lines of work, we propose the possibility of expanding the contexts of activities that have been developed. Also, to include algorithms that allow measuring the attention that the child is developing during the interaction processes in immersive environments.

Acknowledgement:
This article was supported by the Programa Estatal de I+D+i Orientado a los Retos de la Sociedad del Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación Español. PID2020-112611RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and the Agencia Estatal de la Investigación.

Keywords:

Autism, Virtual Reality, Sessions, Interactive.