Lee JooHyun, Lee Tae Seon, Lee SeungWoo, Jang JiHye, Yoo SuYoung, Choi YeJin, Park Yu Rang
Department of Biomedical Systems Informatics, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Department of Neurosurgery, Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
JMIR Res Protoc. 2022 Jun 8;11(6):e35960. doi: 10.2196/35960.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by abnormalities in social communication and limited and repetitive behavioral patterns. Children with ASD who lack social communication skills will eventually not interact with others and will lack peer relationships when compared to ordinary people. Thus, it is necessary to develop a program to improve social communication abilities using digital technology in people with ASD.
We intend to develop and apply a metaverse-based child social skills training program aimed at improving the social interaction abilities of children with ASD aged 7-12 years. We plan to compare and analyze the biometric information collected through wearable devices when applying the metaverse-based social skills training program to evaluate emotional changes in children with ASD in stressful situations.
This parallel randomized controlled study will be conducted on children aged 7-12 years diagnosed with ASD. A metaverse-based social skills training program using digital technology will be administered to children who voluntarily wish to participate in the research with consent from their legal guardians. The treatment group will participate in the metaverse-based social skills training program developed by this research team once a week for 60 minutes per session for 4 weeks. The control group will not intervene during the experiment. The treatment group will use wearable devices during the experiment to collect real-time biometric information.
The study is expected to recruit and enroll participants in March 2022. After registering the participants, the study will be conducted from March 2022 to May 2022. This research will be jointly conducted by Yonsei University and Dobrain Co Ltd. Children participating in the program will use the internet-based platform.
The metaverse-based Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS) will be effective in improving the social skills of children with ASD, similar to the offline PEERS program. The metaverse-based PEERS program offers excellent accessibility and is inexpensive because it can be administered at home; thus, it is expected to be effective in many children with ASD. If a method can be applied to detect children's emotional changes early using biometric information collected through wearable devices, then emotional changes such as anxiety and anger can be alleviated in advance, thus reducing issues in children with ASD.
Clinical Research Information Service KCT0006859; https://tinyurl.com/4r3k7cmj.
INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): PRR1-10.2196/35960.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的特征是社交沟通异常以及有限的重复行为模式。与普通人相比，缺乏社交沟通技能的ASD儿童最终将无法与他人互动，且缺乏同伴关系。因此，有必要开发一个利用数字技术提高ASD患者社交沟通能力的项目。
我们打算开发并应用一个基于元宇宙的儿童社交技能培训项目，旨在提高7至12岁ASD儿童的社交互动能力。我们计划在应用基于元宇宙的社交技能培训项目时，比较和分析通过可穿戴设备收集的生物特征信息，以评估ASD儿童在压力情境下的情绪变化。
这项平行随机对照研究将在确诊为ASD的7至12岁儿童中进行。对于自愿在其法定监护人同意下参与研究的儿童，将实施一个使用数字技术的基于元宇宙的社交技能培训项目。治疗组将每周参加一次由本研究团队开发的基于元宇宙的社交技能培训项目，每次课程60分钟，共进行4周。对照组在实验期间不进行干预。治疗组将在实验期间使用可穿戴设备收集实时生物特征信息。
该研究预计于2022年3月招募并登记参与者。登记参与者后，研究将于2022年3月至2022年5月进行。这项研究将由延世大学和多脑有限公司联合开展。参与该项目的儿童将使用基于互联网的平台。
基于元宇宙的关系技能教育与丰富项目（PEERS）将与线下PEERS项目一样，有效提高ASD儿童的社交技能。基于元宇宙的PEERS项目具有出色的可及性且成本低廉，因为它可以在家中实施；因此，预计对许多ASD儿童有效。如果能够应用一种方法，利用通过可穿戴设备收集的生物特征信息早期检测儿童的情绪变化，那么焦虑和愤怒等情绪变化可以提前得到缓解，从而减少ASD儿童的问题。
韩国临床研究信息服务中心KCT0006859；https://tinyurl.com/4r3k7cmj。
国际注册报告识别码（IRRID）：PRR1-10.2196/35960。
