Early Findings From Our PennWest Clinical Trial: How VR Is Helping Autistic Young Adults Build Real-World Social Confidence
Earlier this month at the 2025 College Autism Network Summit, we shared early research results from our ongoing collaboration with PennWest’s BASIS program. Our research provides an evaluation of how SocialWise VR supports autistic young adults (18–22) in building social confidence in the college environment. The short version: Learners reported feeling more prepared, more confident, and more willing to engage socially after just a few SWVR sessions. And while we’re not done studying long-term outcomes yet, these early signals are strong.
The study followed a three-phase design grounded in Positive Behavior Support and autistic co-design.
Participants began with a baseline self-efficacy scale (mean: 2.6/5).
They selected two VR scenarios to practice.
And then shared their reflections.
Several chose challenges like conversation exits and gaslighting… situations that are notoriously hard to navigate in real life. Inside SWVR, learners could experiment, recover from mistakes, and feel out new strategies without judgment or social fallout. As one of our founders, Jenifer Shahin, put it: “What we heard over and over again from the PennWest learners was that the VR scenarios finally felt like the world they actually live in, which is messy and unpredictable. That authenticity is what unlocks real skill-building.”
Across the board, learners rated the SWVR experience highly (8.8/10 for perceived skill improvement) and began connecting the practice sessions to changes in their day-to-day interactions. Multiple participants described joining more group chats, initiating small talk, making weekend plans, or feeling less anxious in social settings.
The combination of immersive live-actor content and the psychological safety of repeated, low-pressure practice was a recurring theme. And once the student became acquainted with the headset, the core experience held up.
What We Learned From Their Feedback
Learners described greater confidence starting and sustaining conversations.
Reduced social anxiety was the most common outcome.
VR made abstract skills concrete; participants felt the scenarios mirrored real life.
The “try again” loop helped them internalize strategies more quickly.
Facilitator involvement kept the experience grounded and personalized.
These early outcomes suggest something important: when autistic young adults have a safe, realistic, socially rich environment to rehearse uncertain moments, they engage more (not less). It’s exactly what Nicole Lockerman, our co-founder and CEO, sees in her school every day: “When autistic young adults get a safe space to practice social decisions before the stakes are high, everything changes… their confidence, their independence and their willingness to try again.”
We’ll continue studying long-term effects, generalization, and neuroplasticity markers as this work moves forward. But for programs serving neurodivergent young adults at universities, clinicians, transition programs and at home, this early research points to a scalable and genuinely usable tool for building social confidence where it matters most.
If you want to talk about how this applies to your learners or your program, reach out. We’re always up for a focused conversation about what you’re trying to solve and how SWVR can fit into that picture.
