Podcast Episode 55. The use of virtual reality and virtual worlds can be used to change the future for our young people and just how this is happening is the topic of this episode.My guest this week is Dr. Nigel Newbutt who is researching how virtual reality and virtual worlds can be used to help young people with additional needs access and manage real-world situations that they often find overwhelming.

Nigel explains the work he is doing to develop programs which can be used to help develop employment skills, prepare young people for social situations and provide a way to rehearse situations which could otherwise be overwhelming without a prior opportunity to experience what the encounter might be like.

This is the first of a two-part episode and in the next episode, Nigel talks about what the future of virtual reality might look like and also addresses some the concerns that people have around using these types of technology.

The work being done by Nigel is helping make these technologies accessible and relevant to our young people enabling them to develop specific skills in a controlled way which can then hopefully be translated to make their real-world encounters much easier.