Mixed Reality, Full-Body Interactive Experience to Encourage Social Initiation for Autism: Comparison with a Control Nondigital Intervention.

Despite a proliferation in digital intervention tools for autism, many studies lack comparison with standard intervention tools, and are not evaluated with objective and standardized measures. In this article, we present research on the potential of mixed reality (MR) experiences using full-body interaction to foster social initiation behaviors in children with autism while playing with a child without autism, in a face-to-face colocated configuration. The primary goal was to test whether practicing socialization in a virtual environment catered toward individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) could be a way to reduce anxiety while simultaneously forming collaborative behavioral patterns.