Authors (including presenting author) :
Tse TLY, Ho ECM, Chiu FPF, Au BKM
Affiliation :
Occupational Therapy Department, Tai Po Hospital
Introduction :
Patient with learning disabilities (LD) may show aggressive behaviours. (Crooker, 2006) Multisensory therapy was effective to promote LD patients’ relaxation and positive emotions. (Chan et al., 2005) LD patients may lack exposure to sensory stimulation, especially during COVID-19 pandemic, when regular multisensory therapy or environment may not be practical.
With technology advancement, occupational therapy has adopted virtual reality (VR) on, for example, paediatrics and psychiatric patients. (Huri, 2017; Maples-Keller et al, 2017) However, VR application on LD patients remains limited.
Objectives :
This is a case study demonstrating VR providing sensory stimulation, calming effect and positive emotions to LD patients for emotional and behavioural management.
Methodology :
Mr. Wong, a 13-year-old male with mild LD, was admitted due to aggressive behaviours at home. Upon admission, patient showed agitation and aggressive behaviour (banging his head) occasionally, and refused to wear his head protection helmet.
During 4-week in-patient treatment, patient received two 5-minute immersive VR sessions per day, twice per week. During sessions, patient wore a VR headset, that played videos of calming and play contents. These sessions aimed to 1. provide calming visual and auditory stimulation and thus generate calming effects and positive emotions to patient; 2. provide simulated tactile sensation of wearing his safety helmet. Effectiveness was assessed through observation, emotion chart and simple debriefing.
Result & Outcome :
In VR sessions, patient maintained attentive, and showed temper 50% less frequently than in other occupational therapy sessions. No head banging was observed during VR sessions. In debriefing, patient selected “happy” in emotion chart 80% of the time, also verbalized enjoyment in VR sessions, indicating positive emotions were generated. He gradually adapted to the VR headset. He also re-accepted and tolerated wearing the safety helmet for around 1-2 hours after VR sessions.
The result was similar to previous finding (Chan et al, 2005), additional sensory stimulation allowed patient to become more focused thus promoting positive emotions. It might shift patient’s attention from tactile-defensiveness. Among various video contents, nature and his preferred play activities were most effective. VR might have brought positive memories and emotions to patient through visual and auditory stimulation.
This case study illustrated proper use of immersive VR may provide sensory stimulation, generate calming effect, positive emotions and secondary benefits to LD patients for behavioural management. Further systematic investigation of VR on LD is recommended.
