Abstract:
Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are characterized by deficits in social communication. Social communication is facilitated by ability to pick up cues from social partner using Joint Attention (JA) skill, which gets established in early stages of development. However, children with ASD possess deficits in JA skill. These deficits manifest as delay in language acquisition and cognitive skills development at later stages. Therapist-mediated interventions addressing these JA related deficits are labor-intensive and unaffordable. Alternatively, robots and computers can be used. Robot-facilitated skill training suffers from high cost, specialized knowledge to operate, etc. In contrast, Computer-based JA skill training platforms are affordable, offers flexibility to designer, but having limited interactivity coupled with lack of individualization and mostly operate as standalone applications. Individualization is critical for effective skill training. To bridge this gap, we have developed Virtual Reality based Joint Attention Task platform. This system (adaptive to individual's performance) was augmented with Hierarchical Prompt Protocol that autonomously increased level of prompting on demand. Results of a preliminary study with 20 pairs of age-matched ASD and Typically Developing (TD) participants indicates potential of our VR-based system to identify the JA skill deficits of children with ASD vis-a-vis their Typically Developed counterpart.