Game or therapy?

By Tomasz Stasiuk, June 12th, 2009 | Aspergers Syndrome, Social Anxiety-Phobia, Social Phobia, Video | 3 Comments

Check out this demo for a Xbox Project Natal game called “Milo & Kate.”

Can you imagine the therapeutic value of this? From phobia therapies like the one below, to helping people with social phobias, to even more complex therapies such as helping individuals with Asperger’s syndrome pick up on social cues, vocal inflections and body language. The possibilities are amazing!

It also opens the possibility of long distance and even multiple provider therapies: the patient interacts with a single avatar which may be “driven” by different therapists at different times (allowing 24 hour care and a consistent “face”), or even running on auto-pilot as in the “Milo & Kate” demo above.  I did not realize we were so close the the ‘ractors in Neal Stephenson’s Diamond Age.

Virtual Phobia Therapy:

Virtual therapies could be amazing, or they could be awful! What’s your opinion?

Tomasz Stasiuk is the founding attorney of the Stasiuk Firm - a law firm devoted to exclusively handling Social Security disability cases in Colorado. Contingent fees available.