Development of an integrated program of sensory rehabilitation based on vibroacoustic and virtual reality and its effectiveness on the emotional profile in children with autism spectrum disorder: A Case study

Impaired emotion regulation in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) significantly affects their interactions.

The aim of this study was to develop a rehabilitation program based on vibroacoustic and virtual reality techniques and evaluate its effectiveness on the emotional profile of children with ASD.

The research employed a single-subject ABA design. The population included all children with ASD attending the Zehn ara Rehabilitation Clinic in Tehran in the second half of 2021, from which 5 participants were purposively selected. Initially, the combined program was implemented for 10 sessions of 30 minutes each on two randomly chosen participants from the sample, and after validating the program, three additional participants were included in the study. The Sensory Profile 2 questionnaire (2014) was used in this research. During the baseline phase, at the end of each intervention session, and during a one-month follow-up period, the questionnaires were completed. Data analysis involved visual analysis, percentage of improvement, and percentage of overlapping and non-overlapping data.

The results indicated that based on the obtained effect sizes, the intervention had a significant impact on emotional regulation in participants 1 to 5, with 90%, 80%, 80%, 100%, and 90% certainty, respectively. Furthermore, the percentage of improvement resulting from the interventions for participants 1 to 5 was 20.08%, 28.75%, 28.24%, 27.24%, and 21.02%, respectively.

Based on the findings, the combined rehabilitation program was effective in improving the emotional profile of children with autism. Therefore; this approach can be recommended as an appropriate intervention for individuals with ASD.