Abstract

Virtual Reality is nowadays embraced as a pivotal therapy tool to help children with\nAutism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to develop skills to communication and build their social and\nsafety skills. Children with ASD exhibit impairments related to brain maturing that causes\ndeformities in cognitive skills, sensory and emotional balancing. This proposed study\ncontributes virtual reality technology to children affected with ASD to improve their self-safety\nawareness on fire by giving them tasks to find an exit, by identifying the given virtual room is\nabout to cause a fire accident. As short durational sessions and unembellished visuals are\nadmonished in VR for such chaos, the work is attempted to design a 360􀀀 virtual model living\nroom of each participant in Unity 3d Engine. This creates awareness towards the improvisation\nof safety on fire by completing the tasks given through stages and monitor them to analyze their\ntask performances and make participants to actively immerse into virtual experiences. The\nparticipants were 100 young children aged six to eight years diagnosed with mild symptoms of\nASD. Each child is given a training series that comprised of a video model and cartoons\ndisplaying fire safety and necessary precautions. Following training, it was anticipated that the\nparticipants can initiate exiting behaviors while they spot a flame inside the room. The results\nshowed that more than 70% of children met the criteria by following training after attending\nthree sessions.