The Influence of Augmented Reality on Emotional Processing and Empathy in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

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Background: Children with autism spectrum disorder frequently experience difficulty recognizing facial expressions, interpreting emotional cues, and responding appropriately to social situations, which can affect communication, classroom participation, family interaction, and peer relationships. Augmented reality may support emotional learning by providing structured, visual, interactive, and repeated practice within a therapist-guided environment. Objective: To evaluate the influence of augmented reality-based emotional training on emotional recognition, empathy response, and social interaction among children with autism spectrum disorder in Peshawar, Pakistan. Methods: A controlled pre-test and post-test study was conducted among 40 children with diagnosed autism spectrum disorder aged 6–12 years. Participants were divided into an augmented reality plus routine therapy group and a routine therapy-only control group, with 20 children in each group. The intervention was delivered for eight weeks, with three sessions per week. Emotional recognition, empathy response, and social interaction were assessed before and after the intervention using structured tasks, therapist-rated assessment, observation, and caregiver feedback. Results: After eight weeks, the augmented reality group showed greater improvement than the control group across all outcomes. Emotional recognition improved from 13.4 ± 4.2 to 22.6 ± 3.8 in the augmented reality group compared with 13.1 ± 4.4 to 15.0 ± 4.2 in the control group. Empathy response increased from 16.7 ± 5.1 to 28.4 ± 4.6 compared with 16.2 ± 5.4 to 18.0 ± 5.2, while social interaction improved from 12.9 ± 4.0 to 21.8 ± 4.3 compared with 12.6 ± 4.1 to 14.3 ± 4.0. Conclusion: Augmented reality-based emotional training was associated with greater short-term improvement in emotional recognition, empathy-related responses, and social interaction among children with autism spectrum disorder when used alongside routine therapy. The findings support augmented reality as a practical adjunctive tool for structured socio-emotional learning in rehabilitation and special education settings.

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