Buddy: A Virtual Life Coaching System for Children and Adolescents with High Functioning Autism

摘要

Even though avatar-based virtual reality systems have been used to improve social skills of children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), such systems do not address the fundamental emotional and social needs of children. In this paper, we propose a virtual life coaching system called Buddy to address this unmet need. The system aims to reduce the financial cost of autism care, and promises to significantly improve the emotion and mental state of children and adolescents with ASD. Different from other systems, we propose that the life coaching materials be aligned closely with the intense interests of individuals with ASD. This could be essential for the usability and effectiveness of the virtual life coaching system. Such a system would be better in engaging children and adolescents with ASD and in winning their trust for long-term use.