Virtual Reality Victories for Special Populations

PRACTICE MAKES PROGRESS The first time I witnessed virtual reality’s potential to reach and teach students with special needs, my heart melted. It was 2017, and Floreo, the virtual reality (VR) startup company I had joined, was launching its first pilot study. Our mission was to de- velop learning opportunities in VR to help autistic individuals. Toward that end, our small team had been building lessons for about a year, but we were seeking some confirmation that what we had created in VR would be safe, engaging, and useful. For this pilot study, Floreo partnered with a self-contained, special education school in New Jersey, called Celebrate the Children, and recruited 12 students between the ages of 9 and 16, most of whom were either non-speaking or minimally ver- bal. We developed a 5-week study to discover if the students would tolerate wearing the headset and to explore the effects of the lessons. At the mid-study point, we were allowed to review some of the compelling video footage collected. Small gestures and responses implied big steps in engagement and cognition. One student reached out to try to touch the animated giraffe in a scene. Another student stopped her self-stimulatory behavior as soon as the googles went on. The students were engaged and happy to participate. Having worked with students of similar profiles, I felt deep appreciation for a tool that is both accessible to and empowering for these students. That same year, Floreo developed a partnership with Chil- dren's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) at their Center for Autism Research to create a different type of meaningful content. We applied for and were awarded an NIH grant to study whether practicing in virtual reality could be beneficial for autistic indi- viduals who might someday have an unexpected encounter with a police officer. This study was conducted with more verbal- ly fluent individuals. Once again, the feedback from participants was quite positive. With these individuals, we collected specific feedback about their experiences: • “It was really cool and I learned how to talk to cops. I felt more confident at the end.” (15-year-old male) • “It took a little bit to finally feel comfortable, but once I was in, I felt like I was there on the street. I felt like I was inter- acting with someone… I felt like I was talking to a police officer...” (27-year-old male) • “It was a positive experience. I enjoyed it once again and found it very interesting and kind of cool.” (20-year-old

male) • “Pretty good and feel prepared to talk to a police officer.” (12-year-old female) • “I was a little scared of police officers at first, but then got used to it and felt good.” (15-year-old male) One of the more compelling aspects of virtual reality is that it is a medium that can be equally impactful for vastly different profiles of individuals. Since 2017, Floreo has expanded its tar- get audience to the neurodiverse, or anyone in need of practice with social interactions and other practical skills. The ever-grow- ing content library continues to engage children and adults who wear the headset, as well as the support teams who implement the lessons. (Publications resulting from these two research efforts are the last two bullet points in the studies listed at the end of this article. Floreo's research page cites additional publications.) HOW DOES FLOREO WORK? Floreo is a virtual reality (VR) platform especially designed to support neurodiverse individuals in developing and refining a broad range of social interaction, emotional regulation, and life skills. In these immersive VR experiences, the individual wearing the VR goggles (the "Learner") is immediately transported to a relevant environment, such as a movie theater or a school cafe- teria, and interacts with objects and characters. Simultaneously, another individual, such as a clinician, teacher, paraprofessional, or caregiver (referred to as the "Coach") views what the Learner is viewing in VR on a computer or a tablet. The Coach can guide the Learner to navigate the events safely and successfully. En- gagement and repetition build strong connections between learning and real-life implementation. Floreo is an easy tool to implement because it provides in- structions for the Coach that update in real time. While simple to operate, Floreo is not simplistic. It can become a sophisticated and powerful tool in the hands of a skilled professional.

RITA SOLÓRZAN0, MA, CCC-SLP is Director of Applied Digital Therapy at Floreo, Inc. Working as a Speech Language Pathologist since 1993, Rita has designed and delivered speech, language, literacy and social communication therapies primarily for students and clients between the ages of 2 and 22. She began working at Floreo in 2016, initially overseeing the development of VR curriculum designed to improve social and communi- cation skills. Currently, she supports those using VR lessons to improve the skills of their students and clients.

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