Design and development of VR learning environments for children with ASD

Basic social interaction and executing certain tasks can be difficult for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The symptoms of such behaviour include inappropriate gestures, body language and facial expressions, lack of interest in certain tasks, cognitive disability in coordination of limbs, and a difficulty in comprehending tasks’ requirements. This paper will discuss our efforts to develop virtual learning environments for children with ASD to improve their gestures and their interests in comprehending tasks’ requirements. Virtual environments are ideal for imparting skills necessary for independence before encouraging children with ASD to try these out in the real world and gain real-life experience. A high-end solution and a simplified solution will be presented together with a discussion on their comparison study.