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Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Serious Games

Date Submitted: Aug 10, 2023
Open Peer Review Period: Aug 10, 2023 - Oct 5, 2023
Date Accepted: Nov 5, 2023
(closed for review but you can still tweet)

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

Co-Design of a Virtual Reality Multiplayer Adventure Game for Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Mixed Methods Study

Gabrielli S, Cristofolini M, Dianti M, Alvari G, Vallefuoco E, Bentenuto A, Venuti P, Mayora Ibarra O, Salvadori E

Co-Design of a Virtual Reality Multiplayer Adventure Game for Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Mixed Methods Study

JMIR Serious Games 2023;11:e51719

DOI: 10.2196/51719

PMID: 38064258

PMCID: 10746967

Co-Design of a Virtual Reality Multiplayer Adventure Game for Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Feasibility Study

  • Silvia Gabrielli; 
  • Melanie Cristofolini; 
  • Marco Dianti; 
  • Gianpaolo Alvari; 
  • Ersilia Vallefuoco; 
  • Arianna Bentenuto; 
  • Paola Venuti; 
  • Oscar Mayora Ibarra; 
  • Elio Salvadori

ABSTRACT

Background:

Virtual Reality (VR) adventure games can offer ideal technological solutions for training social skills in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), leveraging on their support to multisensory and multiplayer interactions over distance which may lower barriers to training access and increase user motivation. However, the design of VR-based game environments for social skills training is still understudied and deserves the deployment of an inclusive design approach to ensure its acceptability by target users.

Objective:

We present the inclusive design process followed to develop the Zentastic VR Adventure Game to foster social skills training in adolescents with ASD and to investigate its feasibility as a training environment for adolescents.

Methods:

The VR game supports multiplayer training sessions involving small groups of adolescents and their therapists as facilitators. Adolescents with ASD and their therapists were involved in the design and in an explorative acceptability study of an initial prototype of the gaming environment, as well as on a later feasibility multi-session evaluation of the VR game final release.

Results:

The feasibility study demonstrated good acceptability of the VR game by adolescents and an enhancement of their social skills from the baseline to post training.

Conclusions:

The findings provide preliminary evidence of the benefits that VR-based games can bring to the training of adolescents with ASD and, potentially, other neurodevelopmental disorders.


 Citation

Please cite as:

Gabrielli S, Cristofolini M, Dianti M, Alvari G, Vallefuoco E, Bentenuto A, Venuti P, Mayora Ibarra O, Salvadori E

Co-Design of a Virtual Reality Multiplayer Adventure Game for Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Mixed Methods Study

JMIR Serious Games 2023;11:e51719

DOI: 10.2196/51719

PMID: 38064258

PMCID: 10746967

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