Augmented Reality Promotes Social Responses in Autism Spectrum Disorder Subjects

Inclusive education is a pedagogical proposal that pursues the basic right to a joint education for all students.In this line, the increasing prevalence of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the classroom requires a greater understanding of their academic abilities, experience and outcomes.Given recent education reform processes, experts are actively developing opportunities for the educational and personal fulfilment of this group.Among these is the use of a set of technologies that take into account the characteristics of learners.It is for this reason that the need arises to talk about the application of technologies in the classroom, which invite reflection on the teaching-learning process.In this sense, this study aims to apply Augmented Reality to enhance social responses in students with Autism Spectrum Disorder.This research is based on a quantitative approach with a quasi-experimental design with a control group and an experimental group.The sample is made up of 12 students with ASD who are enrolled in a Special Education Specific Unit.Regarding the participant selection procedure used in this study, it was non-probabilistic sampling with an available or accidental nature and easy access or accessibility.The study variable is the social response that has been studied based on three parameters: the greeting at the beginning of the session, the farewell at the end of the session and the communication presented throughout the session.Regarding the instrument used in the educational intervention, the research was carried out through a field notebook designed ad hoc.Subsequently, once the intervention and data collection had been planned and implemented, data analysis was carried out using the SPSS statistical package for Windows (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) version 25.The results obtained show that from the first session more than half of the students in the experimental group (83.33%) said hello at the beginning of the session, as opposed to the control group (16.67%).Likewise, with regard to saying goodbye, the percentage of learners who produced this skill was higher in the experimental group than in the control group.Finally, in terms of communication presented throughout the sessions, the same results were obtained for both groups from the third session onwards.As future lines of research, we propose the continuation of the study with the possibility of applying this tool to a larger group of students, as well as the study of other variables.