Virtual reality training improves police interactions for autistic individuals

A new study led by researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and St. Joseph's University found that an innovative virtual reality intervention was helpful for improving interactions between autistic teens and adults and law enforcement officers. These findings suggest that brief, focused interventions could support the transition from adolescence into adulthood and enhance independence for those in the autism community. The findings were published today in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

People with psychiatric or physical disabilities, including autistic people, face an elevated risk of negative outcomes during police interactions. Many people with autism may struggle to read social cues or experience discomfort when interacting with strangers, which can be exacerbated during an unexpected encounter with police. Additionally, autistic people face higher rates of police contact relative to peers who are not autistic. News stories and academic literature have documented incidents of violence against disabled and autistic individuals, leading to increased fear and anxiety about police interactions for both autistic individuals and their loved ones.

Patients, caregivers, clinicians, researchers and police departments all recognize the urgent need to improve these interactions. However, direct practice with live law enforcement officers would be time consuming and cost prohibitive. To help address this issue, researchers turned toward virtual reality to help simulate these police interactions. After validating the safety, feasibility, and useability of the Floreo Police Safety Module virtual reality intervention with a large sample of autistic stakeholders, the researchers conducted a robust clinical trial to see if practicing interactions in virtual reality could improve outcomes.

Using mobile virtual reality is a great way to engage people and provide a flexible, personalized opportunity to practice specific skills. But we also felt it was very important to test the efficacy of our trial using a practical and generalizable outcome measure, which was a live interaction with a real police officer. Our findings show that this intervention can provide autistic individuals with generalizable skills and tools to help keep them safe."

Julia Parish-Morris, PhD, senior study author, principal investigator at the Center for Autism Research and Associate Professor of Psychology, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at CHOP

In this study, 47 autistic individuals between the ages of 12 and 60 years were randomized to participate in either the Floreo virtual reality intervention or BeSAFE The Movie video modeling intervention. Both groups completed three 45-minute in-person sessions an average of nine days apart. Importantly, this is one very few clinical trials to enroll autistic adults with the goal of improving life skills after the transition to adulthood.

After a thorough, objective analysis, results showed that both groups used their new skills during interactions with officers. However, individuals in the virtual reality group fidgeted less during live interactions with police officers after the intervention compared with before the intervention, which was not observed in the video modeling intervention group. Results also indicated better responding and overall behavior during live interactions with police officers, which were driven by significant improvements in the virtual reality intervention.

"As Dr. Parish-Morris described, the live police interaction was such an important part of this study," said first author Joseph P. McCleery, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and Executive Director of Academic Programs for the Kinney Center for Autism Education and Support at St. Joseph's University. "This would not have been possible without the tremendous cooperation we had from the Philadelphia Police Department. Multiple police officers dedicated their personal time to come to our Center several times across weeks and months to allow us to determine whether or not the virtual reality intervention would truly help autistic people feel and perform better during live police interactions. Their efforts helped us document the real-world impact of the intervention for autistic teens and adults."

This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant R42MH115539-S1.