Table 1.
Included studies
| Authors. (year), country of study origin | Study type/duration | Aim | Methodology | N* (f**) | Participant age range (mean IQ) | HMD/equipment used |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amaral et al. (2018), Portugal | Feasibility study/17 weeks | Joint attention | Joint attention through EEG brain computer interface | 15 (0) | 16–38 (102.53) | Yes/Oculus Rift + g.Nautilus EEG system |
| Babu and Lahiri (2020), India | Case–control study/80 min | Social interaction | Virtual reality multiplayer interaction platform with eye-gaze monitoring | 18 (n/a) | n/a mean age 9.8 (n/a) | No/eye-tracker, multiplayer interaction framework |
| Bai et al. (2015), United Kingdom | Case-study (within subject)/n/a | Pretend play | Pretend play in an AR open-ended environment | 12 (0) | 4–7 (n/a) | No/AR monitor + logitech webcam + marker-based tracking |
| Beach and Wendt. (2016), USA | Case-study (qualitative)/4 weeks | Social interaction | Social skills through observing scenarios | 2 (0) | 15–18 (n/a) | Yes/Oculus Rift |
| Bernardini et al. (2014), United Kingdom | Feasibility study/6 weeks | Social communicative behaviors | Training social communicative behavior with virtual agents | 19 (1) | 4–14 (n/a) | No/Multitouch LCD display with eye-gaze tracking |
| Burke et al. (2018), USA | Case-study/14 weeks | Job interview skills | Job interview skills using Virtual Interactive Training Agents | 22 (n/a) | 19–31 (n/a) | No/Kinect + TV-screen |
| Burke et al. (2020), USA | Case-study (within subject)/22 weeks | Job interview skills | Job interview skills using Virtual Interactive Training Agents | 99 (n/a) | n/a mean age 21.71 (n/a) | No/laptop, monitor with camera sensor |
| Chen et al. (2015), Taiwan | Case-study/6 weeks | Promote emotional expression and social skills | Promote emotional expressions through AR self-facial modeling | 3 (0) | 10–13 (100.67) | No/monitor + webcam |
| Chen et al. (2016), Taiwan | Case-study/7 sessions | Improve perception and judgement of facial expressions and emotions | Improve perceptions of non-verbal cues through AR video modeling | 6 (0) | 11–13 (103.66) | No/tablet |
| Cheng et al. (2015), Taiwan | Case-study (single subject)/6 weeks | Enhance social understanding and social skills | Enhance social skills using a 3D-social understanding | 3 (0) | 10–12 (82) | Yes/VR-goggles + laptop |
| Cheng et al. (2010), Taiwan | Case-study/23 weeks | Enhancing empathy (instructions) | Enhance empathy and social cognitions through collaborative and virtual environment | 3 (0) | 8–10 (104) | No/laptop computer |
| Cheng and Huang. (2012), Taiwan | Case-study/12 weeks | Joint attention | Joint attention through a virtual reality environment | 3 (0) | 9–12 (61.67) | No/Computer screen and data glove |
| Cheng and Ye. (2010), Taiwan | Feasibility (Pilot-study)/3 weeks | Social competence | Training social and emotional skills through a virtual learning environment | 3 (0) | 7–8 (102.33) | No/laptop computer |
| Chung et al. (2015), USA | Feasibility study (proof-of-concept)/5 weeks | Social behavior in cooperation in videogame | Peer cooperation in AR-videogame | 3 (0) | 8–12 (n/a) | No/AR game (Kinect) |
| Crowell et al. (2019), Spain | Case-study/120 min | Social skills, collaboration | Enhancing social skills in a virtual full-body interaction environment | 25 (0) | 4–14 (> 70) | No/Kinect |
| Didehbani et al. (2016), USA | Case-study/5 weeks | Emotion recognition and social attribution | Enhancing social skills through interactive VR-learning scenarios | 30 (4) | 7–16 (112.6) | No/Computer screen |
| Halabi et al. (2017), Qatar | Case-study/2 sessions of 20 min | Social interaction and communication | Enhancing communication skills through VR | 3 (0) | 4–6 | Yes/CAVE VR + Oculus Rift |
| Herrero and Lorenzo (2020), Spain | Case–control study/10 sessions | Social and emotional abilities | Social interaction with avatars in a virtual environment | 14 (1) | 8–15 (approx. average) | Yes/Oculus Rift, smartphone |
| Ip et al. (2018), Hong Kong | Case-study/14 weeks | Enhance emotional and social adaption skills | Enhance social skills and emotion regulation in an immersive VR environment | 36 (5) | 6–12 (n/a) | No/4-side CAVE VR system |
| Kandalaft et al. (2013), USA | Feasibility study/5 weeks | Enhancing social skills, social cognition, and social functioning | Enhancing various social and social cognitive skills through VR-scenarios | 8 (2) | 18–26 (111.9) | No/Computer screen and VR software |
| Ke and Im. (2013), USA | Case-study/5 weeks | Social interaction | Social interaction tasks in VR-based learning environment | 4 (2) | 9–10 (n/a) | No/Computer screen and VR software |
| Ke and Lee. (2016), USA | Feasibility—exploratory case study/5 weeks | Social behavior in game play | Enhancing social skills through VR collaboration game | 2 (0) | 9–10 (n/a) | No/OpenSim |
| Ke and Moon. (2018), USA | Case-study/16 to 31 45–60 min sessions | Social interaction | Enhancing social skills through VR collaboration game | 8 (1) | 10–14 (> 70) | No/OpenSim |
| Ke et al. (2020), USA | Multiple single-case study/12 weeks | Social skills and role-play | 7 (1) | 10–14 (n/a) | No/OpenSim | |
| Lee. (2020), Taiwan | Multiple single-case study/8 sessions | Judge other people’s social interaction and respond appropriately | Improving performance and understanding of body gestures through AR-role-play and tutoring | 3 (1) | 7–9 (102.3) | No/Kinect Tracking system |
| Lee et al. (2018), Taiwan | Case-study/6 weeks | Teach how to use social cues | Teaching social skills through social scenarios in AR | 3 (1) | 8–9 (93.3) | No/tablet, TV-screen and concept map |
| Liu et al. (2017), USA | Feasibility study/1 session | Emotion Recognition, Social Attention, Eye-contact and self-regulation | Enhancing social gaze and emotion recognition through AR-games | 2 (0) | 8–9 (n/a) | Yes/brain power system (BPS) + smartglasses |
| Lorenzo et al. (2019), Spain | Feasibility study (preliminary)/20 weeks | Social skills | Enhancing social skills through AR-based social activities | 5 (1) | 2–6 (n/a) | No/AR on smartphone |
| Lorenzo et al. (2016), Spain | Case–control/40 weeks | Emotional competence | Learning emotional scripts in VR | 40 (11) | 7–12 (n/a) | No/Semi-cave, robot and camera |
| Lorenzo et al. (2013), Spain | Case-study/40 weeks | Social competence | Training social and emotional skills in a VR-based school setting | 20 (4) | 8–15 (n/a) | No/3D IVE + Kinect + 3D glasses |
| Malinverni et al. (2017), Spain | Feasibility (Exploratory case study)/4 sessions | Social initiation | Enhancing social skills through VR collaborative game (PICO) | 10 (0) | 4–6 (95.9) | No/Pico's adventure Full body interact. Kinect |
| Milne et al. (2010), Australia | Case-study/n/a | Conversational skills and dealing with bullying | Conversational skills and dealing with bullying through virtual agent tutoring | 14 (n/a) | 6–15 (n/a) | No/desktop computer and webcam |
| Moon and Ke. (2019), USA | Feasibility (mixed methods)/6 sessions | Social skills; responding, initiating, negotiating and collaborating | Social skills training through social role-play in VR-game | 15 (2) | 10–14 (> 70) | No/open simulator |
| Parsons. (2015), United Kingdom | Case-study/2 weeks | Communicative perspective-taking skills | Social interaction in a collaborative VRE | 6 (0) | 10–13 (96) | No/laptop computers and microphone headsets |
| Ravindran et al. (2019), USA | Feasibility (pilot study)/5 weeks | Joint Attention | Training joint attention in VR | 12 (0) | 9–16 (n/a) | Yes/HMD cardboard with smartphone, tablets |
| Serret et al. (2014), France | Feasibility study (pilot-study)/4 weeks | Emotion recognition | Training emotion recognition through Serious game | 33 (2) | 6–17 (70.5) | No/computer game with a gamepad |
| Smith et al. (2014), USA | Randomized control trial/10 h | Job interview skills | Computer simulation of job interviews in VR | 26 (n/a) | 18–31 (n/a) | No/computer |
| Stichter et al. (2014), USA | Case-study/17 weeks | Social competence | Training social and emotional skills through distance education in iSocial | 11 (0) | 11–14 (99.55) | No/computers with headset |
| Strickland et al. (2013), USA | Randomized study/n/a | Job interview skills | Computer simulation of job interviews in VR | 11 (0) | 16–19 (n/a) | No/computer |
| Trepagnier et al. (2011), USA | Feasibility study/2 weeks | Conversational skills | Training of conversational skills through computer simulation | 16 (1) | 16–30 (109.4) | No/computer screen simulation |
| Tsai et al. (2020), Taiwan | Multiple single-case design/5 weeks | Emotion recognition | Role-play and observation | 3 (0) | 7–9 (87) | No/CAVE-like environment using Kinect |
| Uzuegbunam et al. (2018), USA | Feasibility (Pilot-study)/7 weeks | Social greeting behavior | Social greeting behavior through social narratives | 3 (0) | 7–11 (n/a) | No/touchscreen computer with Kinect v2 |
| Vahabzadeh et al. (2018), USA | Feasibility study/6 weeks | Irritability, hyperactivity, and social withdrawal | Training on facial attention, mutual gaze and emotion recognition through smartglasses with social cues | 4 (0) | 6–8 (n/a) | Yes/smartglasses |
| Wang et al. (2017), USA | Case-study/18 weeks | Verbal and nonverbal social interaction | Training social and emotional skills through iSocial | 11 (0) | 11–14 (> 75) | No/3D VLE, computer screen |
| Ward and Esposito. (2019), USA | Exploratory study—case study/mean 129 min | Job interview skills | Computer simulation of job interviews in VR | 12 (2) | 18–22 (95.6) | No/Chromebook, headset w/microphone |
| White et al. (2016), USA | Randomized control trial/10–14 weeks | Social competence and self-regulation | Training of social interaction and emotion recognition in VE | 8 (3) | 19–23 (126.75) | No/desktop computer, tablet and EEG |
| Yang et al. (2017, 2018), USA | Case-study/5 weeks | Social cognition | Training social and emotional skills in immersive role play | 17 (2) | 18–31 (109.65) | No/computer and fMRI |
| Zhang et al. (2018a, 2018b), USA | Case–control study—Feasibility study/50 min | Collaborative interaction and verbal communication | Social communication through collaborative playing in a virtual environment | 7 (1) | 7–17 (191.06) | No/Desktop computers |
| Zhao et al. (2018), USA | Case-dyad study—feasibility study/n/a | Communication and collaboration | Collaborative skills through game-playing in VR | 12 (n/a) | n/a mean age 12.20 (n/a) | No/motion controller, eye tracking, headset, webcam and computer |
Table of the included studies
*Total number of participants with ASD (all genders) in the study, this number is excluding the other participants in the respective studies
**Number of female participants. This number is also included in the total number and should not be added to the total number of participants