VR Intervention to Improve Police Safety

Summary

The primary objective of this study is to demonstrate the efficacy of Floreo's police safety module (PSM) in adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by assessing improvement in police interaction skills as compared to a video modeling intervention.

Conditions

• Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Autism

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Virtual Reality Intervention

Floreo's Police Safety Module (PSM) offers a supervised VR experience for people with ASD. The software is an application that provides a 3D immersive scene for headset-compatible smartphones. The person with ASD will use a smartphone capable of running the application with a dedicated headset providing the virtual environment. The PSM provides an immersive story-based intervention that shows a fully realized and intricately detailed urban environment designed to engage the user in a virtual encounter with a law enforcement officer. The immersive VR environment engages the person with ASD as an actor in a virtual narrative, incorporating strategies from both story-based intervention and video modeling. The video demonstrates the approach and initial engagement efforts of two police officers in the virtual environment, from the perspective of the person wearing the headset. The PSM allows a monitoring therapist to use a tablet or phone to supervise the person's virtual world.

BEHAVIORAL

Video Modeling Intervention

The video modeling intervention is a subset of the BE SAFE The Movie Curriculum Lessons (https://besafethemovie.com/curriculum/) that were selected to match Floreo PSM on length. The BE SAFE The Movie Curriculum consists of video-based instruction on police officer interaction expectations and safety. Within each of three sessions, participants will watch videos, complete worksheets, and discuss topics related to police safety knowledge and behaviors with the study administrator.

BEHAVIORAL

No intervention

Participants will follow all study procedures with the exception of the VR-based intervention including assessments.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Floreo, Inc.

  collaborator INDUSTRY

• National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

  collaborator NIH

• Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Julia Parish-Morris, PhD · Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

• Vijay Ravindran · Floreo, Inc.

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

12 Years

Max Age

60 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2017-11-17

Primary Completion

2022-10-12

Completion

2022-10-12

Countries

• United States

Study Locations