A widely used toolset to help children with autism spectrum disorders, the Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention (NDBI) when combined with virtual reality can yield promising results according to a new study. The study that was recently published in the Research in Developmental Disabilities journal concluded that when NDBI is merged with virtual reality, behavioral intervention can become more accessible, personalized, efficient, and effective.
NDBI, defined as “adult-led, behavioral teaching methods with child-led routines and taught to a natural developmental progression within naturalistic settings”, has often been hailed by the experts as the most promising intervention technique for children with autism. The study was conducted by child psychiatry experts from across the world with the main author being Anders Dechsling from Østfold University College, Norway.
“Virtual Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (VNDBI) will contribute to making interventions more accessible in central as well as remote locations, while reducing unwanted variation between service sites. VNDBI will advance the possibilities of individually tailoring and widening the area of interventions,” said the study. It added that VNDBI can also provide the field with new knowledge on effective components enhancing the accuracy in the intervention packages and thus move forward the research field and clinical practice.
The authors suggest that more research be done on the efficacy of VR and other technology-based intervention tools in the real world to identify the areas of use for them, especially with relation to children with developmental disabilities.
