Design of a Haptic Virtual System for Improving Fine Motor Skills in Children with Autism

Fine motor skills, including gripping, holding and reaching, are useful and necessary in fundamental daily activities. However, children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) show deficits and delays in fine motor skills compared to their peers. In this paper, we propose a virtual training system enabling the assessment and improvement of fine motor skills for children with ASD through haptic interaction in a low-cost and engaging virtual environment with real-time feedback (e.g., haptic, auditory and visual feedback). This system consists of a Haptic Gripper allowing users to manipulate (e.g., grip and move) virtual balls in the games and thus provides opportunities for users to improve finger and hand motor control. We present the system design, and a small usability study which verified the system functionality and indicated the potential of this system in improving fine motor skills of the users in move and grip manipulations.