VIRTUAL REALITY INTERVENTIONS FOR PERSONS WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS: A SYSTEMATIC SCOPING REVIEW

Background: There has been an increase of interventions using Head Mounted Display (HMD) through Virtual Reality (VR) technology in training with people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). VR-technology through the use of HMDs can be suitable for persons with ASD (Ip et al., 2018) as, for instance, a simulated social environment can be perceived as less stressful compared to real-world encounters when learning new social skills. There is a need for an overview of the empirical literature that investigate VR use for persons with ASD since the feasibility of different approaches and their potential application in educational settings is not well known. Aim: We will search for all empirical intervention studies published in scientific peer-reviewed journals and categorize the studies in terms of: 1) intervention content and approach 2) what age groups are targeted, and 3) and methodological rigour of the intervention, design of the study as well as other possible methodological strengths and weaknesses. Method: The databases that will be consulted for the search are; EMBASE, MEDLINE, PubMed, PsycINFO, and ERIC. This will cover publications from various disciplines and ensure a comprehensive search. An information retrieval specialist will conduct the search and the first author then will screen the studies retrieved. The last author will screen 20% of the total studies for inter-rater purposes. Results: The studies included in the scoping review will be presented within the three categories; content, age, and methodological rigour. Discussion: This scoping review provide the research fields with a overview of intervention studies through the use of VR-technology that focus on persons with ASD.., we will present, and discuss the availability of different interventions. This will provide key information about what types of interventions are available and to whom in terms of age-groups. As intervention research within the ASD-field have been known to lack rigour (Charman, 2011) the assessment of methods used in the available research is important and the various studies will be evaluated in terms study design, number of participants, measures of outcomes used and to what extent causal inferences of efficacy and effectiveness are warranted. Finally, we will suggest future research questions related to the results and discussion.