Navigating Autism: The Role of Collaborative Virtual Reality in Social Skills Development

Nada Sharaf

2025

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) require new interventions because social communication can be specially challenging. Such interventions could help social skills grow. Collaborative virtual reality (VR) technology enables having different interactive and engaging environments. It offers a promising ways for improving many skills since people can safely engage with others as well as learn with others. This paper reviews the application of collaborative VR in improving social skills among children with ASD. The reviews shows the potential of collaborative VR to simulate deeply dynamic social interactions in a carefully controlled setting as well. Different studies show that collaborative VR use can help children with ASD improve empathy, social understanding, and teamwork. However, there are still some difficulties including accessibility as well as the possible need for individualized interventions and potential sensory overload. This review points out the opportunities that collaborative VR provides for meaningful learning improvements and for the large practice of social interactions in an engaging way. It also discusses the actual obstacles,that need to be addressed, to completely maximize the advantages of VR technologies regarding social skills development in ASD. The provided analysis could help support innovation and research in the field.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Sharaf N. (2025). Navigating Autism: The Role of Collaborative Virtual Reality in Social Skills Development. In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU; ISBN 978-989-758-746-7, SciTePress, pages 590-597. DOI: 10.5220/0013437400003932

in Bibtex Style

@conference{csedu25,
author={Nada Sharaf},
title={Navigating Autism: The Role of Collaborative Virtual Reality in Social Skills Development},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU},
year={2025},
pages={590-597},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0013437400003932},
isbn={978-989-758-746-7},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU
TI - Navigating Autism: The Role of Collaborative Virtual Reality in Social Skills Development
SN - 978-989-758-746-7
AU - Sharaf N.
PY - 2025
SP - 590
EP - 597
DO - 10.5220/0013437400003932
PB - SciTePress