Successful transfer to the real world of skills practised in a virtual environment by students with severe learning difficulties

Nineteen students with severe learning difficulties aged between 14 and 19 years completed a shopping task in a real supermarket before 9 students, the experimental group, had twice-weekly sessions carrying out a similar task in a virtual supermarket. The remaining 10 students formed the control group, matched with the experimental group for ability, age and sex. They had the same number of sessions using other virtual environments. Although there was no difference between the two groups at baseline, on repeating the task in the real supermarket the experimental group were significantly faster and more accurate than the control group.