ADHD VR Simulation Tackling Challenges on a Global Scale
The ADHD VR Simulation, designed for heightened public awareness through empathy, leverages immersive XR technology to offer firsthand experiences of the challenges individuals with ADHD face. Providing a deep dive into their lives, it fosters robust understanding, recognition, and empathy. This tool serves as a hands-on resource for researchers, caregivers, educators, and those closely involved with individuals affected by ADHD, meeting its goal of facilitating a comprehensive understanding and support network.
The Challenge
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental condition marked by levels of inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity that are not developmentally appropriate*. It may lead to academic failure, family stress and disruption, depression, challenges in relationships, substance abuse, delinquency, accidental injuries, and job failure. The global research estimates that roughly 129 million children have the condition and carry it over into adulthood in over three-quarters of cases.
Early recognition and intervention play a crucial role in mitigating these potential issues and helping ensure trust, understanding, support, and help for people with ADHD.
The Solution
The ADHD VR Simulation, developed by Lucid Reality Labs, serves as a powerful tool to elevate public awareness and foster a deeper understanding of ADHD through hands-on experience for those closely involved with individuals affected by ADHD. Immerse yourself, and the solution offers a firsthand encounter with the daily hurdles individuals face with ADHD, cultivating a more nuanced and empathetic perspective. This simulation is dedicated to supporting those with ADHD, transforming the perceptions held by educational professionals, and opening opportunities for improved communication, education, and societal integration. The ultimate goal is to bridge gaps in understanding, promote empathy, and create a more inclusive and supportive environment for individuals with ADHD utilizing XR technology.
The Solution Concept
While ADHD conditions may not be easily understood, educating and increasing awareness can have a crucial impact on the perception of children and adults with ADHD. Moreover, although no cure exists, early diagnostics and treatment may lessen the symptoms and improve the child’s development. Extended Reality (XR) plays a significant role in facilitating this understanding.
Developed in collaboration with experts, the VR Simulation offers a unique perspective, allowing users to step into the shoes of a child with ADHD, recreating a third-grade male student’s experiences, emotions, and reactions and providing a first-hand understanding of ADHD and depicting an everyday situation where the sensority of the surroundings is significantly amplified, compared to the perception of a person not affected by ADHD.
The Solution Features
The created environment was designed to capture and simulate the experiences, emotions, and reactions of a student diagnosed with ADHD:
🔘 Four distinct distractions occur inside a third-grade classroom. These common distractions, while unique unto themselves, can occur anytime during the experience. They are not designed to occur in any sequence but as the user chooses. Visual and audio cues call the user’s attention to the various distractions.
🔘 The experience has a distinct beginning and ending, but the classroom experience (i.e. the distractions) will occur at the user’s will. When the user looks around the room, their gaze will trigger the distractions.
🔘 The digital twin of the teacher in the classroom with pre-recorded actions was created in the form of motion capture. The teacher is constantly in front of the player, and her script to perform to mimics real-life behavior and conveys emotions. Other students’ behavior surrounding the user will be randomized, including various motions and positioning angles.
🔘 The simulation architecture has been elaborated flexibly, allowing tweaks and edits to achieve the best results.
🔘 Each scene will have its script and narrative created with experts describing avoidance of activities and decreased motivation, forgetfulness, hyperfocus, disorganization, losing things, and fidgeting.
The Outcome
The ADHD VR Simulation, designed for heightened public awareness through empathy, leverages immersive XR technology to offer firsthand experiences of the challenges individuals with ADHD face. Providing a deep dive into their lives, it fosters robust understanding, recognition, and empathy. This tool serves as a hands-on resource for researchers, caregivers, educators, and those closely involved with individuals affected by ADHD, meeting its goal of facilitating a comprehensive understanding and support network.
*CHADD – Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder founded in 1987 in response to the frustration and sense of isolation experienced by parents and their children with ADHD.