Virtual Reality Interventions for Enhancing Executive Functions in Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

This study investigates the impact of a Virtual Reality (VR)-based intervention on the enhancement of executive functions—cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, and working memory—in children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Employing a single-case experimental design with repeated measures, the research was conducted with two male participants, aged 9 and 10, both formally diagnosed with ASD. The intervention was structured into four phases: Baseline (no training), Intervention (targeted VR training), Generalization (skill transfer testing), and Follow-up (maintenance assessment). Each participant engaged in a total of 18 tasks (six per executive function), delivered through immersive VR environments featuring gamified elements, adaptive feedback, and increasing difficulty. Each task consisted of up to 15 sub-items, scored as correct or incorrect. Results indicate consistent improvements across executive function domains during the intervention phase, with partial maintenance at follow-up and evidence of task generalization. Given the single-case framework and limited sample size, findings should be interpreted as exploratory and hypothesis-generating rather than population-generalizable. The study provides proof-of-concept evidence supporting the feasibility and potential of immersive VR-based executive function training for ASD populations, warranting further validation through larger-scale controlled trials.