Bon Appétit: Acquiring Food Preparation Skills via Virtual Simulation

Life skills represent important skills needed for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Technology, including immersive and non-immersive virtual reality, presents options to support the acquisition and maintenance of life skills for students with IDD. In this study, researchers examined a non-immersive virtual simulation module for delivering life skills instruction to high school students with IDD, with particular attention on food preparation-making grilled cheese on a stove. In the single subject multiple probe study with three participants, the researchers found two main results: (a) a functional relation between the intervention-virtual simulations for delivering life skills instruction-and the dependent variable of independent accuracy in making a grilled cheese sandwich on a stove, and (b) students maintained high levels of accuracy in their targeted skill (i.e., making a grilled cheese on a stove) after instruction ended.