Thesis - VR exposure therapy for the treatment of selective mutism in children
For my bachelor thesis, I created a VR application for supporting the treatment of selective mutism, a rare disorder affecting a young child’s ability to speak in social situations. During development, I worked closely with researchers and behavioral therapists to meet their requirements. As part of my work, I designed a framework for systematically implementing an existing exposure therapy treatment plan in VR, and extended it with intuitive interaction methods and a virtual teacher.
I created a 3 part interactive experience using C# and the Unity engine and deployed it on a Quest 2 headset. The first part is shown in the above video, the goal of this step is to coax the child into making noise by tempting him to blow.
Additionally, I wrote a Python WebSocket server for facilitating communication through a custom JSON-based protocol with an online dashboard.
Abstract
Selective mutism is a rare anxiety disorder where a person does not speak in certain situations. Exposure therapy has proven to be an effective psychological treatment, but generally involves intensive in vivo exposure supervised by a therapist. This research investigates whether virtual reality exposure therapy can make treatment of selective mutism in children more accessible. Studies on the adoption of virtual reality treatment in related disorders exists, but our intended use is novel. Findings are based on the development of an experimental application, qualitatively evaluated by domain experts. The application is based on an existing protocol, which revolves around the school environment. We present a robust approach for systematically implementing this protocol using reusable components, driven by intuitive interaction methods, and guided by a virtual teacher. We aim to empower therapists by supporting the ability to practice freely in a tailored virtual environment, while relaying its state through a dashboard for monitoring. In conclusion, the application was positively received by the interviewed domain experts, who regarded it as a sufficient foundation for further research and development.