Using Virtual Reality to Provide Safe Practice for Interacting with Police

Using Virtual Reality to Provide Safe Practice for Interacting with Police

Friday, February 26, 2021

Registration 8:30am Program 9am to 12pm

Presented By: Julia Parish-Morris, Ph.D.

Location: Online Workshop

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

3.0 CE Credits

Act 48 credits available

Interactions with police officers can be stressful and difficult, especially for people with social communication challenges like autism spectrum disorder. In this talk, I will describe a recent study that showed the safety and preliminary efficacy of a virtual reality-based intervention aimed at providing a safe, supervised environment to practice interacting with police officers. After three intervention sessions, improvements in key communication and social skills were found. Finally, a new telehealth version of the intervention will be described, along with preliminary data from a survey of diverse stakeholders and police officers themselves.

Objectives:

1. Describe the diagnostic criteria for ASD.
2. Identify reasons why individuals with ASD may experience particular challenges during police interactions.
3. Describe a virtual reality-based intervention to provide safe opportunities to practice interacting with police.

Julia Parish-Morris, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Psychology with the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and a Scientist with the Center for Autism Research at CHOP. Her primary research interests are social communication behaviors in autism and related conditions. Recent projects include assessing social motivation using infrared eye tracking, studying growth trajectories of receptive and expressive language in young children at genetic risk of developing autism, implementing virtual reality as a way for individuals with autism to practice interacting with police officers, and applying computational linguistics methods to pinpoint a “linguistic signature” of autism – with a particular focus on understudied groups like girls. Her long-term research goals are to identify the mechanisms that underlie pragmatic language impairment and social communication difficulty in neurodevelopmental disorders across the lifespan, chart relationships between these domains and functional impairment, inform individualized treatments, and contribute to early identification efforts. Dr. Parish-Morris is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a Presidential Fellowship, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, Autism Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, American Psychological Association Dissertation Award, Alavi Dabiri Award, and Award of Excellence from the Center for Autism Research.

PSCP: The Psychology Network is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. PSCP: The Psychology Network maintains responsibility for this program and its content.