Improving Children's Social Skills With Virtual Reality: A Tailored Single-Session Training in Special Education

This within-child study examined whether a tailored, single-session virtual reality (VR) training can enhance social skills among children enrolled in special education programs for behavior problems. Forty-nine children (ages 7-13; 85.7% boys; 57.1% ASD, 20.4% ADHD) completed one 20-min VR session. For each child, teachers selected one skill for children to practice with: staying calm (anger regulation), asking to join a group (peer entry), or saying no (assertiveness). Relative to baseline, in-VR observations showed substantial immediate improvements of the targeted skill (η²_p = .35), but teacher reports two weeks later showed no comparable improvement in the classroom (η²_p = .07). Teachers also reported no changes in children's aggressive behavior or emotional problems two weeks later. Children reported moderate levels of immersion and perceived efficacy, low-to-moderate emotional engagement, and high appreciation of the training, VR, and trainer-child relationship. Overall, findings suggest that interactive VR is an attractive tool to practice socially skilled behavior, but that transfer to real life may require more sessions, explicit bridging strategies, and/or more emotionally engaging VR.