Abstract
Autism is characterized by a variable combination of: (i) impairment in social interaction, (ii) impairment in verbal and non verbal communication, (iii) restricted, repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behaviour. The autistic spectrum disorder is a continuum that overlaps with learning disabilities and shades into eccentric normality. People with autism can have considerable communication difficulties in social situations and in higher level language skills such as inferring intentions or mental states from other. For the reasons above here, we hypothesize that the online virtual game “Second Life” could be used in developing social and communicative skills of autistic people. Second life is an extremely successful 3D online virtual world where users can navigate, interact and view the world through their own customised “avatar”, a digital representation of themselves. Users communicate via typed chat and pre-recorded animations and more recently via real-time voice. More elaborate animations allow more complex behaviour such as gesture providing a rich source of non verbal communicative cues. Since 2003 it has grown explosively and now is inhabited by millions of people from around the globe. About forty-three percent of them are females with an average age of 32 years. In general, virtual reality (VR) environments have been shown to offer a set of potential advantages for educational intervention in autistic spectrum disorders [1] and [2]. The majority of subjects with autism seem to have a basic understanding of the virtual environment as a representation of reality [3]. However, there are some unique properties of Second Life which make this software particularly suitable for our therapeutic hypothesis. First, it allows anonymous social interactions, and provides high levels of social interactivity but without complex linguistic and social-behavioural processing necessary for face-to-face conversations. To a certain extent it levels the playing field for autistic people by offering a new space for social skills rehearsal, a place to simulate social interactions of real life. Current attempts to teach social behaviours tend to adopt either a behavioural or a ’theory of mind’ approach. However, the failure to generalize learned behaviours to novel environments, and the unwieldy nature of some behavioural methodologies, means that there is a need for a training package that is easy to administer and successful in promoting learning across contexts. Thus, a second point may be that this package creates a secure space where it is safe to make social mistakes and were to personally develop a sense of collaboration and community. Second Life technology may be an ideal tool for allowing participants to practise behaviours in role-play situations, whilst also providing a safe environment for rule learning and repetition of tasks. Role-play within virtual safe environments could promote the mental simulation of social events, potentially allowing a greater insight into minds. Practice of behaviours, both within and across contexts, could also encourage a more flexible approach to social problem solving. Finally, Second Life might offer a place to share information and research [4] and [5]. If found that Second Life may be useful in ameliorating the social skills of such patient group, the implications for provision of cost-effective virtual interventions for people with autism may be considerable.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 980-981 |
| Number of pages | 2 |
| Journal | Medical Hypotheses |
| Volume | 71 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2008 |