Do we need high-scale flexibility in virtual therapies

Virtual reality (VR) offers a wide range of applications in the field of cognitive neuropsychology both in diagnosing cognitive deficits and in treating them. An optimal diagnostic method is the on-field test, which provides an opportunity to apply VR-based simulations. VR is also a useful tool for skill-building and training by setting up a virtual setting, which imitates the real environment including the attributes to be trained. Moreover, it provides a graded approach to problem-solving and the feeling of safety and it excludes the negative elements which are detrimental to the learning process. To further extend the effectiveness of VR applications it is necessary to refine VR environments and adapt them according to the specific needs of selected target groups and the real-time control of virtual events. Following the principle of flexibility we prepared two virtual environments: 1) an Adjustable Virtual Classroom (AVC) for the treatment of fear of public speaking in a primary school task-solving setting, and 2) a Virtual Therapy Room (VTR) designed for use with aphasic clients. Due to their flexible nature, a large number of elements can be customised in both of these settings including spatial organisation, textures, audio materials and also the tasks to be solved. The real-time control over the virtual avatars by the supervisor, i.e. therapist to guide the social interactions in the virtual world also allows him/her to follow-up on the user’s reactions and therapy performance. By focusing on the details of the therapy room, we would like to demonstrate the relevance of the flexibility of the software in the development of innovative therapy solutions for aphasic clients. 1