NoPhobiar: Designing A VR Game to Prevent Childhood Dark Phobia with Children and Stakeholders

Abstract

Children's dread of the dark at night is a common occurrence as they develop, but if we disregard their worries without taking action, then they will develop a phobia of the dark, which will negatively impact their future. This study investigates the use of VR games in the prevention and treatment of dark phobia in youngsters. The majority of VR research, though, is not entirely appropriate for treating psychiatric disorders in young patients. We therefore invited children and their stakeholders to explore solutions to this issue in order to better grasp the issues and needs of treating children's phobia of darkness. In this paper, we develop a VR game for the prevention and treatment of dark phobia for children aged 4 to 6 years by engaging children and their stakeholders personally in our research to understand the design requirements and elements. Our research seeks to offer fresh design concepts for the VR treatment of mental illness in children between the ages of 4 and 6.