Here's a partial viewing of an article from the American Psychological Association on the use of Second Life as a therapy to assist with developing social skills for autistic people. This article confirms my research, that a trained professional who be needed to monitor the experience.

Can Second Life therapy help with autism?

For people with Asperger's syndrome and other autism spectrum disorders, social interactions can prompt excruciating anxiety. Cognitive neuroscientist Sandra Bond Chapman, PhD, is working to help them with a virtual, interactive platform that fosters their ability to communicate more comfortably and effectively with others.

With a therapist's guidance, patients enter a protected area in Second Life designed to help them practice communicating and negotiating in realistic settings. (The area—which is simply a location within the cyberworld—is secured so patients can't enter the main part of Second Life, which Chapman believes could be overly confusing and disorienting for them.) As in Second Life, both patient and therapist create avatars, or virtual representations of themselves. The therapist's avatar—backed by a real therapist watching from a different room—enters the scene when the client needs help. More avatars, created with the help of the client's friends, relatives or other clinicians, can inhabit the scenes as well.

Depending on the issues a person needs to work on, various challenges arise. A boy with Asperger's who has difficulty making friends, for instance, may enter a lunchroom where his task is to find a lunch mate. But he may encounter two children already engaged in conversation, which can both raise his anxiety and—with the therapist's help, if necessary—propel him to use skills he has difficulty with, such as initiating small talk or seeking out another friend. 

Meanwhile, an adult ………Click Here for the full article.