Exploiting Augmented Reality in LEGO Therapy for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Numerous computer-based therapies have been designed for cognitive-behavioral interventions to support children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in recent years. Among these technologies, Augmented Reality (AR) offers unique educational benefits because it provides children with direct guidance on their learning tasks. In this work, we propose “AR-brickhouse,” an AR application to support ASD children during LEGO therapy. It combines the benefits derived from AR technology and the LEGO tangible user interface with caregivers’ involvement. The novelty of our system concerns the improvement of ASD children’s basic skills such as positioning in space; focusing on tasks; acquisition of concepts of shape, color, and size. A preliminary user study involved eight ASD children and twelve therapists from a real medical center. Our results suggest that the proposed system is easy for therapists and allows children to improve the aforementioned basic skills. In fact, they were able to accomplish LEGO assembly tasks with better accuracy and in less time than traditional LEGO therapy.