The PTC and Boston Children's Hospital Collaborative AR Experience for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Minimally verbal children with Autism Spectrum Disorder often face challenges in the areas of language, communication, and organization. Augmented Reality (AR) may provide a valuable technique to enhance language learning as well as navigating tasks and activities. The “AR experience,” developed by PTC Inc with Boston Children’s Hospital, was a collaborative effort to provide a working tool for use in studies regarding the effectiveness of AR as a teaching tool for minimally verbal children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The purpose of this paper is to describe (a) the development of the application using the “Design Thinking Process,” (b) describe the features of the resulting AR experience, and (c) present initial evaluation results.