Making Pretense Visible and Graspable: An augmented reality approach to promote pretend play

Children with autism are often found to lack facility for pretend play. It is believed that this deficit is linked to linguistic, social and creativity competencies in autism. We observe that both Augmented Reality (AR) and pretend play involve processing of information that is coupled with real scenes while not necessarily being directly perceived. This research therefore examines the potential of using AR technologies to promote pretend play behaviors in children with autism. As an initial outcome, we present the design and implementation of an AR system that aims to enhance the comprehension and flexibility of object substitution during pretend play.