Assessing the Impact of Immersive Augmented and Virtual Reality Based Joint Attention Training Platform on Autistic Children via Behavioral and Physiological Measures

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition that is usually diagnosed between the ages of one and three. It is characterized by developmental issues and repetitive behaviours. One of the important social skills, i.e., Joint Attention (JA), involves developing a shared focus of attention with another person. Children with ASD often lack JA skills, which can impede their ability to develop social communication skills later in life. This makes early intervention critical. Previous research has explored various techniques for teaching JA skill training, but few have utilized immersive Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) based devices for JA skill training. Additionally, there is limited work in literature exploring the physiological effect of JA training via using immersive AR and VR devices. This paper addresses these gaps by introducing a novel JA training platform that utilizes immersive AR and VR devices for JA skill training. This platform enables participants to interact with it using their eye gaze. To validate the acceptance of the developed platforms, we conducted experiments on ASD (5) and Neurotypical (NT) (10) participants. To quantify the participant's task performance while interacting with these platforms, we have used behavioural (time duration to register a response) and physiological parameters (Beats per minute (BPM)). The ASD group took a longer time for response registration than the NT on both AR and VR platforms (mean duration in sec, for ASD (AR/VR): 34.5/12.5; for NT (AR/VR): 8.8/4.22). Also, the physiological parameter BPM showed a similar trend, which was higher in ASD in comparison to NT for both platforms (BPM, for ASD (AR/VR): 100.49/90.27; for NT (AR/VR): 87.39/86.60). The increase in cardiac activity, as quantified by BPM values for ASD, gives us an impression of the sensory sensitivities in the autistic group that lead to physiological arousal and thereby interfere with their focusing capability, resulting in delayed response. This study emphasizes the importance of monitoring physiological responses of participants during JA training. It also highlights the difficulties faced by ASD participants during these trainings in immersive AR and VR environments.