In a sunny classroom at the New York City Autism Charter School in the South Bronx, young children eagerly waited their turn to step into a cartoon virtual world. A girl in a lavender and pink Disney sweatshirt strapped on the virtual reality headset, resembling futuristic ski goggles. Through the VR program, she will be learning to raise her hand and take turns, providing an example of how virtual reality helps autistic students learn social skills.

Heidi Brueckmann, her teacher and a clinical supervisor at the school, sat opposite the student and views and operates the virtual reality program, called Floreo, through a tablet. Her screen displayed what the child saw, along with prompts to help her coach the student through the lesson.

Virtual reality, increasingly, is becoming an educational tool for autistic people. The tech is backed by research suggesting that virtual reality can help children and adolescents with autism. A review study published in May in the Journal of Internet Medical Research analyzed 14 previous studies on VR’s role in autism therapy and found that virtual reality helps autistic students, especially with social skills such as understanding social cues, interpreting facial expressions, engaging in conversation, and forming or maintaining relationships.

The student’s goggles placed her inside a colorful VR classroom populated by a virtual teacher and animated classmates. A virtual whiteboard displayed weather-related drawings and words. Brueckmann prompted the virtual teacher to ask questions. When the virtual teacher asked what a thermometer measures, Brueckmann’s student called out the answer. Brueckmann tapped a button, prompting the virtual teacher to remind the girl to raise her hand. Then, with the press of another button, Brueckmann prompted the virtual teacher to ask the question again.

One of the benefits of the VR setup, Brueckman said, is that it enables her to work individually with a student while teaching them to interact with other kids. In real-world group settings, it can be hard to coach kids through scenarios when they are surrounded by, and potentially interacting with, other students who are struggling with similar social skills.

Read the full article about how virtual reality helps autistic students by Dawn Kikel at Chalkbeat.