Virtual game approach for rehabilitation in autistic children

With the changes in diagnostic procedures and public awareness, the number of individuals diagnosed with autism are rising dramatically in recent years. This project presents virtual games developed as an augmentative aid to engage autistic students in rehabilitative and academic training. It is an attempt to show the cost effectiveness, safety and time-efficiency of building a platform for pilot study, using virtual agent and robot without any hardware. Following an iterative and incremental model for software development life cycle, an interactive quiz programme which employs virtual avatar to pose academic related questions to autistic students is developed. Additionally, drawing on a Sumo wrestling game using robotics agent iRobot Create to hone motor skill is evaluated. Experiments conducted at a Singapore-based autistic school with a sample of nine students had garnered a mixed result. The degree of assistance required to guide them through the game can range from minimal to gesture and contact guidance. Experimental results showed that the deployment of virtual games hold great potential in motivating and exciting the children in their learning process, as well as providing valuable insights to related rehabilitative industries.