Improving real-world skills in people with intellectual disabilities: an immersive virtual reality intervention.

Virtual reality (VR) is a promising tool for training life skills in people with intellectual disabilities. However, there is a lack of evidence surrounding the implementation, suitability, and effectiveness of VR training in this population. The present study investigated the effectiveness of VR training for people with intellectual disabilities by assessing (1) their ability to complete basic tasks in VR, (2) real-world transfer and skill generalisation, and (3) the individual characteristics of participants able to benefit from VR training. Thirty-two participants with an intellectual disability of varying severity completed a waste management training intervention in VR that involved sorting 18 items into three bins. Real-world performance was measured at pre-test, post-test, and delayed time points. The number of VR training sessions varied as training ceased when participants met the learning target (≈ 90% correct). A survival analysis assessed training success probability as a function of the number of training sessions with participants split by their level of adaptive functioning (as measured on the Adaptive Behaviour Assessment System Third Edition). The learning target was met by 19 participants (59.4%) within ten sessions (