Use Of Video Modelling For The Promotion Of Social And Play Skills In Children With ASD

Abstract

Peer relations serve many important functions in children’s development. Social reciprocity or reciprocal peer interactions occur when children engage in social interactions with one another or when their actions support each other in their relationships. In Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), however, reciprocity of social exchange is missing and is manifest as a lack of both social responses and initiations to other people. Over the years, various behavioural strategies have been developed to promote social interactions between children with ASD and their peers for a successful integration in inclusion settings. Specifically, there has been a shift in emphasis from language-based instruction to more visual instructional supports as a catalyst for learning in children with ASD. This development reflects extensive reports that children with ASD demonstrate enhanced performance on visual discrimination tasks compared to matched controls. Therefore, it is not surprising that the majority of current educational programs for children with ASD frequently employ visual aids such as picture prompts, photographic activity schedules, and videos. Therefore, video modelling, as one of the behavioural strategies, is not only an effective and evidence-based method for developing many social and play skills, but it can also be a practical and efficient tool that is well-suited to the school environment. In this presentation, pertinent video modelling methodologies will be explored and specific suggestions on the effective use of video modelling will be provided.

At the conclusion of the presentation, the attendee will be able to: (1) name the salient features of video modelling procedures as guided by findings from the literature (e.g., with what ages video modelling can be effective, what intervention goals can be addressed by the implementation of video modelling, in which settings video modelling can be effectively used, etc.); (2) describe different types of video modelling and the advantages and disadvantages of each type when targeting social and play skills in children with ASD; and (3) demonstrate step by step different types of video modelling (e.g., video modelling, self-modelling, priming modelling, point of view modelling) that could be designed and implemented.