Researchers and clinicians in the field of cognitive neuroscience have faced significant challenges in effectively addressing social skills development in individuals dealing with mental illness or neurodevelopmental disorders.
THE PROBLEM
Traditional approaches often lacked real-world engagement and applicability, making it difficult for individuals to generalize skills learned during therapy sessions to everyday social interactions. As a result, many patients struggled with feelings of isolation, anxiety, and difficulty navigating social situations, which hindered their overall well-being and quality of life.
“In educational settings, educators also faced barriers to providing comprehensive support to students with social challenges,” said Maria Johnson, director of youth and family innovations and Charisma Virtual Social Coaching Lead at the Center for BrainHealth, a cognitive research center at the University of New York. Texas in Dallas. “These challenges often translated into academic and social barriers to success, which impacted students’ learning experiences and outcomes.
“Similarly, clinicians in clinical care settings encountered limitations of traditional therapy approaches, especially in creating realistic social scenarios in which clients could practice and generalize their skills,” she continued. “This lack of engagement and personalized learning experiences hindered the overall progress and well-being of individuals seeking support for social skills development.”
Overall, the overriding problem was the inadequacy of existing methods to effectively meet the diverse social skills needs of individuals in different environments, leading to persistent challenges in social interaction and emotional well-being.
PROPOSAL
That’s why the Center for BrainHealth proposed developing Charisma Virtual Social Coaching, a system rooted in research and evidence-based protocols to address the challenges of social skills development. The platform aimed to leverage immersive virtual environments and live coaching sessions to provide individuals with a highly engaging and effective method for practicing and refining their social skills.
“Based on the principles of cognitive neuroscience and social information processing models, Charisma provides a comprehensive curriculum designed to address specific deficits in social skills while promoting generalization and real-world application,” Johnson explains. “Through a combination of role-play scenarios, interactive exercises and immediate feedback from both clinicians and their virtual counterparts, Charisma creates a supportive and realistic environment for skill acquisition and mastery.
“The platform proposal outlined a multifaceted approach that integrated elements of telehealth and gaming technology to deliver personalized and evidence-based social coaching,” she continued. “Charisma’s customizable avatars and various social settings are designed to meet the unique needs and preferences of each individual, ensuring a customized and effective learning experience.”
Furthermore, the platform emphasizes the importance of continuous assessment and progress tracking to monitor skills development and adjust interventions accordingly.
“By harnessing the power of immersive virtual environments and live coaching sessions, Charisma is revolutionizing social skills training, providing individuals with the tools and support needed to confidently and successfully navigate social interactions,” said Johnson .
MEETING THE CHALLENGE
Charisma has leveraged the inherent appeal of game-based technologies to address the challenges of social skills development.
“Charisma was designed and developed by the Center for BrainHealth and embodies a synergy between developers, artists, researchers, clinicians and coaches,” said Aaron Tate, director of emerging technology at the Center for BrainHealth. “This collaboration has resulted in a platform that is not only technologically advanced, but also deeply rooted in scientific research and practical application.
“At its core, Charisma uses the Unreal Engine to create a virtual environment, ensuring a rich, immersive experience that reflects the complexity and nuance of social interactions in the real world,” he continued. “Charisma is hosted on Amazon Web Services and benefits from a robust cloud infrastructure, enabling seamless, high-quality game interface streaming directly through web browsers.”
This cloud-based approach allows Charisma coaches to connect with clients worldwide, eliminating geographic barriers and making the platform accessible to anyone with internet access and a device that can stream video content.
“The platform’s integration into popular video conferencing apps further simplifies access; users can launch Charisma’s comprehensive suite of role-playing scenarios and social strategy training modules with just one click,” Tate explains. “This integration represents a leap in convenience and accessibility, making it possible for users to participate in personalized social skills development sessions from the comfort of their home or any other location of their choice.
“The platform architecture is designed to be both inclusive and expansive, accommodating a wide range of users,” he continued. “From individuals looking to improve their interpersonal skills to clinicians and educators looking for effective tools to support their clients and students, Charisma offers a versatile solution.”
The platform’s integration with other systems, especially AWS’s cloud services, provides a smooth, powerful experience that can adapt to the changing needs of its users, he added.
“Through this holistic approach, combining cutting-edge technology with expert insights, Charisma effectively facilitates meaningful improvement in social skills and fosters a greater sense of connection and understanding among its users,” he said.
“To extend Charisma’s reach and effectiveness, we have entered into a strategic partnership with AWS, focusing on integrating generative AI technologies alongside our established success with pixel streaming,” he continued. “This partnership is poised to transform the user experience and expand the capabilities of the platform in unprecedented ways.”
Generative AI, a cornerstone of Charisma’s future development, will change the way social scenarios and training modules within Charisma are created and deployed, he added. This technology will enable the automatic generation of social scenarios that are not only diverse and engaging, but also closely aligned with the Charisma curriculum, he said.
“By using AI to suggest scenarios and coaching considerations, we ensure that each session is backed by research and meets a high standard of consistency and educational value,” Tate explains. “This approach enhances the customization and flexibility of our offering, allowing Charisma to adapt to the unique needs and learning goals of each user, while maintaining the integrity of our core strategies.
“Looking ahead, we are excited about AI’s potential to enable autonomous social skills training scenarios,” he continued. “Realizing this ambitious vision will require substantial data as it involves building scenarios that can intelligently adapt to user responses and learning progress, replicating the nuanced guidance traditionally provided by human coaches. “
The goal is to complement live coaching sessions with AI-driven scenarios that can provide users with additional practice and reinforcement in different contexts, accelerating skill acquisition and mastery.
“AWS’s robust cloud infrastructure and advanced AI capabilities are critical in this journey and provide the technical foundation needed for these advanced features,” he said. “The scalability and security offered by AWS ensures that Charisma can efficiently handle the increased data processing demands resulting from AI integration and maintain users’ privacy and data integrity.
“This partnership not only facilitates the technological advancement of the Charisma platform, but also illustrates our commitment to leverage the latest innovations in AI and cloud computing to redefine social skills training,” he added .
RESULTS
Charisma’s immersive virtual environments provide individuals with a safe and supportive space to practice identifying and regulating emotions in different social contexts, allowing for repeated exposure and strengthening of skills, Johnson said.
“Charisma Virtual Social Coaching has achieved significant success in improving social competencies, with measurable results demonstrating its effectiveness,” she reported. “A key metric is the reported gains in recognizing and managing emotions, with 90% of participants noticing improvement in this area.
“This measure is assessed through pre- and post-intervention assessments, including self-reported measures and clinician assessments of emotional intelligence and regulation,” she added.
Additionally, nearly 75% of participants reported doubling their ability to understand the intentions of others, indicating substantial growth in perspective taking and social cognition. This metric is measured through structured assessments within Charisma’s curriculum, including tasks that require participants to interpret social cues and infer the thoughts and feelings of others.
“By providing realistic social interactions and immediate feedback from both clinicians and virtual avatars, Charisma facilitates the development of advanced social competencies, leading to tangible improvements in participants’ social lives,” Johnson noted.
“The effectiveness of this unique social coaching program, delivered in an engaging virtual environment, has been validated in peer-reviewed research, published in Boundaries in virtual reality”, she concluded. “Additional research with a variety of populations is ongoing.”
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