Innovative Intervention Through Augmented and Virtual Reality for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15359/ree.29-1.18527Keywords:
Autism, autism spectrum disorder, educational technology, educational innovation, augmented reality, virtual reality, SDG 4, Quality education, interactive learningAbstract
Introduction. This study focuses on students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and examines the disorder and the integration of educational technologies, specifically augmented reality and virtual reality, as innovative tools for conducting training interventions. Objective. This study aims to understand the influence of augmented reality and virtual reality on students with ASD across various psychoeducational variables, including motivation, attention, communication, autonomy, and learning results. Method. A quasi-experimental pre-post design was employed involving a single group to achieve the study’s objectives. The sample consisted of 23 students from the Autism Association of Ceuta. Data was gathered through a questionnaire after implementing the planned contrast intervention. Results. The results reveal that activities with augmented reality and virtual reality achieved a greater reach than traditional activities, especially in terms of motivation, although attention was affected. Discussion. This verifies the potential of educational technology. However, its use must be adapted to optimize its benefits and mitigate possible effects on attention, guaranteeing a balanced educational experience for students with ASD.
Downloads
References
Adams, C. & Gaile, J. (2020). Evaluation of a parent preference-based outcome measure after intensive communication intervention for children with social (pragmatic) communication disorder and high-functioning autism spectrum disorder. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 105, Artículo 103752. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2020.103752
Alcañiz, M. L., Olmos-Raya, E., & Abad, L. (2019). Uso de entornos virtuales para trastornos del neurodesarrollo: una revisión del estado del arte y agenda futura. Medicina (Buenos Aires), 79(Supl.1), 77-81. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/156263
American Psychiatric Association (APA). (2013). Reference guide to the DSM 5 diagnostic criteria.
Babb, S., Raulston, T. J., McNaughton, D., Lee, J.-Y., & Weintraub, R. (2021). The Effects of Social Skill Interventions for Adolescents With Autism: A Meta-Analysis. Remedial and Special Education, 42(5), 343-357. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741932520956362
Bacca, J., Baldiris, S., Fabregat, R., Graf, S., & Kinshuk. (2014). Augmented reality trends in education: A systematic review of research and applications. Educational Technology & Society, 17(4), 133-149. https://www.j-ets.net/collection/published-issues/17_4
Cabero-Almenara, J. & Roig-Vila, R. (2019). The motivation of technological scenarios in augmented reality (AR): Results of different experiments. Applied Sciences, 9(14), 1-16. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/app9142907
Carmona-Serrano, N., López-Belmonte, J., Cuesta-Gómez, J.-L., & Moreno-Guerrero, A.-J. (2020). Documentary analysis of the scientific literature on autism and technology in Web of Science. Brain Sciences, 10(12), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10120985
Cuetos Revuelta, M. J., Grijalbo Fernández, L., Argüeso Vaca, E., Escamilla Gómez, V., & Ballesteros Gómez, R. (2020). Potencialidades de las TIC y su papel fomentando la creatividad: Percepciones del profesorado. RIED. Revista Iberoamericana de Educación a Distancia, 23(2), 287-306. http://dx.doi.org/10.5944/ried.23.2.26247
De-la-Hoz-Franco, E., Martínez-Palmera, O., Combita-Niño, H., & Hernández-Palma, H. (2019). Las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación y su influencia en la transformación de la educación superior en Colombia para impulso de la economía global. Información tecnológica, 30(1), 255-262. http://dx.doi.org/10.4067/S0718-07642019000100255
de Luca, R., Leonardi, S., Portaro, S., Le Cause, M., de Domenico, C., Colucci, P. V., Pranio, F., Bramanti, P., & Calabrò, R. S. (2021). Innovative use of virtual reality in autism spectrum disorder: A case-study. Applied Neuropsychology: Child, 10(1), 90-100. https://doi.org/10.1080/21622965.2019.1610964
Fage, C., Consel, C., Etchegoyhen, K., Amestoy, A., Bouvard, M., Mazon, C., & Sauzéon, H. (2019). An emotion regulation app for school inclusion of children with ASD: Design principles and evaluation. Computers & Education, 131, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.12.003
Fridhi, A., Benzarti, F., Frihida, A., & Amiri, H. (2018). Application of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality in Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, in Particular in the Case of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Neurophysiology, 50(3), 222-228. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11062-018-9741-3
Gallardo Montes, C. del P., Rodríguez Fuentes, A., & Caurcel Cara, M. J. (2021). Apps for people with autism: Assessment, classification and ranking of the best. Technology in Society, 64, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2020.101474
Gasca-Hurtado, G. P., Peña, A., Gómez-Álvarez, M. C., Plascencia-Osuna, Ó. A., & Calvo-Manzano, J. A. (2015). Realidad virtual como buena práctica para trabajo en equipo con estudiantes de ingeniería. Revista Ibérica de Sistemas e Tecnologias de Informação, (16), 76-91. https://www.risti.xyz/index.php/es/ediciones
Ghanouni, P., Jarus, T., Zwicker, J. G., & Lucyshyn, J. (2020). The use of technologies among individuals with autism spectrum disorders: Barriers and challenges. Journal of Special Education Technology, 35(4), 286-294. https://doi.org/10.1177/0162643419888765
Köse, H. & Güner-Yildiz, N. (2021). Augmented reality (AR) as a learning material in special needs education. Education and Information Technologies, 26(2), 1921-1936. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-020-10326-w
Larionova, V., Brown, K., Bystrova, T., & Sinitsyn, E. (2018). Russian perspectives of online learning technologies in higher education: An empirical study of a MOOC. Research in Comparative and International Education, 13(1), 70-91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1745499918763420
Lorenzo, G., Gómez-Puerta, M., Arráez-Vera, G., & Lorenzo-Lledó, A. (2019). Preliminary study of augmented reality as an instrument for improvement of social skills in children with autism spectrum disorder. Education and Information Technologies, 24(1), 181-204. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-018-9768-5
Mak, G. & Zhao, L. (2023). A systematic review: The application of virtual reality on the skill-specific performance in people with ASD. Interactive Learning Environments, 31(2), 804-817. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2020.1811733
Masson, H. L., de Beeck, H. O., & Boets, B. (2020). Reduced task-dependent modulation of functional network architecture for positive versus negative affective touch processing in autism spectrum disorders. NeuroImage, 219, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117009
McCleery, J. P., Zitter, A., Solórzano, R., Turnacioglu, S., Miller, J. S., Ravindran, V., & Parish Morris, J. (2020). Safety and feasibility of an immersive virtual reality intervention program for teaching police interaction skills to adolescents and adults with autism. Autism Research, 13(8), 1418-1424. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2352
McKeithan, G. K. & Sabornie, E. J. (2020). Social–behavioral interventions for secondary-level students with high-functioning autism in public school settings: A meta-analysis. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 35(3), 165-175. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088357619890312
Miller, I. T., Wiederhold, B. K., Miller, C. S., & Wiederhold, M. D. (2020). Virtual reality air travel training with children on the autism spectrum: A preliminary report. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 23(1), 10-15. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2019.0093
Moreno-Guerrero, A.-J., Soler-Costa, R., Marín-Marín, J.-A., & López-Belmonte, J. (2021). Flipped learning and good teaching practices in secondary education. Comunicar, 29(68), 107-117. https://doi.org/10.3916/C68-2021-09
Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS). (2019). Clasificación Internacional de Enfermedades, 11ª revisión. Estandarización mundial de la información de diagnóstico en el ámbito de la salud. https://icd.who.int/es
Radianti, J., Majchrzak, T. A., Fromm, J., & Wohlgenannt, I. (2020). A systematic review of immersive virtual reality applications for higher education: Design elements, lessons learned, and research agenda. Computers & Education, 147, 1-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.103778
Rezae, M., Chen, N., McMeekin, D., Tan, T., Krishna, A., & Lee, H. (2020). The evaluation of a mobile user interface for people on the autism spectrum: An eye movement study. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 142, Artículo 102462. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2020.102462
Roberts-Yates, C. & Silvera-Tawil, D. (2019). Better education opportunities for students with autism and intellectual disabilities through digital technology. International Journal of Special Education, 34(1), 197-210. http://www.internationalsped.com/ijse/issue/view/11/8
Sadler, K. M. (2019). Video self-modeling to treat aggression in students significantly impacted by autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Special Education Technology, 34(4), 215-225. https://doi.org/10.1177/0162643418822070
Vásquez, B. & del Sol, M. (2020). Morfología neuronal en el trastorno del espectro autista. International journal of morphology, 38(5), 1513-1518. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0717-95022020000501513
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Noemí Carmona-Serrano, Jesús López-Belmonte, Juan-Antonio López-Núñez, Antonio García-Guzmán, Antonio-José Moreno-Guerrero

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 Unported License.
1. In case the submitted paper is accepted for publication, the author(s) FREELY, COSTLESS, EXCLUSIVELY AND FOR AN INDEFINITE TERM transfer copyrights and patrimonial rights to Universidad Nacional (UNA, Costa Rica). For more details check the Originality Statement and Copyright Transfer Agreement
2. REUTILIZATION RIGHTS: UNA authorizes authors to use, for any purpose (among them selfarchiving or autoarchiving) and to publish in the Internet in any electronic site, the paper´'s final version, both approved and published (post print), as long as it is done with a non commercial purpose, does not generate derivates without previous consentment and recognizes both publisher's name and authorship.
3. The submission and possible publication of the paper in the Educare Electronic Journal is ruled by the Journal’s editorial policies, the institutional rules of Universidad Nacional and the laws of the Republic of Costa Rica. Additionally, any possible difference of opinion or future dispute shall be settled in accordance with the mechanisms of Alternative Dispute Resolution and the Costa Rican Jurisdiction.
4. In all cases, it is understood that the opinions issued are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position and opinion of Educare, CIDE or Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica. It is also understood that, in the exercise of academic freedom, the authors have carried out a rogorous scientific-academic process of research, reflection and argumentation thar lays within the thematic scope of interest of the Journal.
5. The papers published by Educare Electronic Journal use a Creative Commons License:











The articles published by Educare Electronic Journal can be shared with a Creative Commons License: 

