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.
