Teaching Children with Autism Inclusion Readiness Skills Using Video Self-Modeling with an iPad

Abstract

Video self-modeling has been used in the past to teach many skills to children with autism. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders have a lack of language processing, expressive communication, and social skills. These deficits may impact the ability to function in the general education classroom. The current investigation examined the effects of using video self-modeling with an iPad device to teach inclusion readiness skills to children with autism. The specific group directions that were taught were cleaning up, lining up, and sitting down. Three young children with autism participated in this study. A multiple baseline design across behavior and subjects was used. All three participants reached mastery criteria in all three behaviors. Experimental control was shown with the multiple baseline across subjects. Moreover, experimental control was established with the multiple baseline across behaviors with one of the participants. Due to generalization across behaviors, experimental control was shown with two of the behaviors with a second subject. When video models were discontinued and maintenance probes were conducted, all three children maintained group direction skills. Results showed that the prerequisite classroom skills were effectively taught to children with autism using video self-modeling. The results are discussed in terms of implications for the general education classroom and future research directions.