Virtual reality-based serious games to improve motor learning in children with autism spectrum disorder: an exploratory study

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often report impairments in motor learning compared to their peers with typical development (TD). The present study wants to preliminary assess the ability of virtual reality (VR) to foster motor learning in ASD. In particular, 20 children with ASD and 20 children with TD performed two VR-based serious games that required them to perform motor actions with the upper limbs with varying degrees of freedom in the movement. The two serious games were performed twice in a counterbalanced order, and execution time and accuracy were measured. Findings showed that children with ASD were less accurate and took longer to perform the two serious games than their peers with TD. Moreover, no motor learning effect was reported in the serious game that required movements with high-level degrees of freedom, while a motor learning effect was revealed in the game requiring precise goal-directed actions. The children with ASD improved their performance by reducing their execution time across game repetitions. The improvement in time performance did not affect accuracy, which remained stable across repetitions. These findings support the development and implementation of VR-based serious games in ASD intervention, as they could foster motor learning and improve motor skills in this population.