Examining Perception of Malaysian autistic children social interaction for Virtual Reality

This paper has reviewed the effect of Virtual Environments (VEs) in facilitating children affected by autism, in this context, extensive researches have been carried out by the researcher to review the significant works on the strategies employed to enhance the skills of autism children and help them to manage their day to day activities, including communication with their parents, brothers and sisters, teachers, as well as their friends. This study has identified that, the consequences of virtual environments applications are clearly witnessed on autism children. Basically, VE facilitates autism children to enhance their social skills, and to exhibit their inner thoughts. This paper also attempted to evaluate the autistic level of Malaysian children at NASOM Center and check whether they impaired in social interaction, based two instruments, observation and Q-chat questionnaire. Those children were analyzed for understanding on their favorite aspects such as, games, colors, shapes etc. Based on this understanding we have created an initial design of virtual system , including the favorite  shapes,colors,3-D Game, and used haptic (joystick),  as interface, Apart from being practical, the system  facilitated us in providing the much realistic experience in 3-D virtual environment, which  will be incredibly valuable for autistic children.

Keyword: naturalistic inquiry observation, Q-CHAT, autistic children, social interaction, ASD, 3D Environment, Virtual Peers, visualization.