The Efficacy Of Video Modeling As An Autism Intervention

Video Modelling for Autistic Children
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Introduction
There are quite a number of techniques that are available to teachers to make sure they are able to reach their students at the point of need and impact the desired level of education and more importantly enlightenment. For the teachers who work with children these tools can be diverse and more importantly involving. This is relative to the level of understanding that the children have at the different stages. There is a special class of children that require even more fine-tuned methods of teaching; children with autism. One of the best ways to help children with autism to learn is through video modelling. This is a technique that involves the use of video recording and display equipment to provide to the student with a visual model of a targeted skill or behavior. This a well-documented intervention within the behavioral sciences (Rudy, Betz, Malone, Henry & Chong, 2014). It is an intervention that is used in a number of areas among them, social behavior, adaptive skills, language development and play. It is an approach that has in particular been found to be efficacious for children that are suffering from autism (Schatz, Peterson & Bellini, 2016).
Autism
The Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders referred commonly as DSM-5, persons that are considered to be suffering from the autism spectrum of disorders tend to show inadequacies that are permanent within the field of interaction and social communication (Akmanoglu, 2015). There are a number of characteristics that can be used to identify or diagnose a person that is suffering from autism spectrum of conditions. Among the main ones include the fact that they tend to have an unusual approach towards people, where they display challenges creating or maintaining conversations. They are also challenged when it comes to the verbal and nonverbal communications skills. As such, a person that is suffering autism will difficulty using and understanding aspects such as gestures, facial expressions, and body language (Akmanoglu, 2015). At the same time, their vocabulary and ability to interpret some of the aspects of language such tone variation among others will be lacking. These persons also tend to show inadequacy when it comes to the adaptation behaviors within the various social contexts such as making friends, facing difficulties when involved imaginary plays, showing interest in their peers, sharing various items such as during play, understanding the various relationships they are in along with the development and maintenance of social relations (Akmanoglu, 2015).
Persons that suffer from autism tend to have challenges when they are expressing their emotions as well as understanding the feelings that others in their environment express. This is relative to the fact that they do not have developed skills when it comes to interacting with the facial cues used in conversations. As such, they will interpret the facial cues with efficiency to take part in a normal conversation. This further points to the challenges that autistic people face when it comes to their social skills as they limit their ability to interact with their peers. The face is an important part of the human interactions and works as a primary source of information. As such, the ability to recognize and correctly interpret facial cues is an important part of conversations and social interactions in general. Where the skills are lacking, this means that communication if labored between the parties and there are chances of miscommunications (Akmanoglu, 2015).
Children that suffer from autism are not able to develop the skill to make and interpret facial reflections and expressions in their first year of life (Akmanoglu, 2015). The human face is at the center of human interactions as it acts as one of the most important source of information. It is through the face that humans are able to show their emotions, take in social interactions and participate in verbal communications. Infants even a few days old, are able to imitate some of the facial expressions. By the time they are 3 to 4 months they are able to distinguish between sad, happy and even surprised (Akmanoglu, 2015). At the age of 7 months, they are able to recognize angry faces. For the children that are suffering from autism, these are aspects that are not fully developed and hence require special attention when relating with them. More importantly, they require special training techniques, such as the use of Video Modelling (Akmanoglu, 2015). In the study by Akmanoglu, Suna was able to respond correctly to the target training sets and also maintained the learnt skills at 100%.
Video Modelling
This is an intervention that is well documented and validated with reference to behavioral sciences. This is an approach that mostly relates to observational learning. It is an approach that helps parents to train children in reference to conduct disorder and it is also used by speech therapists (Schatz, Peterson & Bellini, 2016). When the technique is used on the children that are suffering from autism, it helps with getting the children to harness their communication and vocalization skills, play and social skills, processing emotions, academics, adaptive behavior and taking perspective (Rudy, Betz, Malone, Henry & Chong, 2014). There are a number of video modelling types among them, video prompting, point of view, video self-modelling and basic video modelling. Video prompting involves the behavioral skills being broken down into steps where the leaner is able to first view the step and try it before moving on to the next. Point of view video modelling on the other hand is associated with the video being recorded from the perspective of the leaners. Basic video modelling involves recording another person other than the learner as they engage in a targeted behavior or even a skill. This recording is them shown to the leaners for trials and training. There are a number of gains and limitations that can be cited with the use of the technique to teach children with autism certain skills that they will rely on whether they are in class or they are in their social circle. It is important to understand the level of efficacy of the technique with reference to the same (Schatz, Peterson & Bellini, 2016).
The Efficacy of Video Modelling
Improving Play Skills
Play is an activity that children will engage in to facilitate enjoying and discovering the world that is around them (Rudy, Betz, Malone, Henry & Chong, 2014). This also helps the children to bridge the gap between what they dream about and reality. There are new experiences with objects, people and the events that they interact with. Pretend play is one of the most important approach to creating these realities and skills. This enhances the child’s ability to imagine and grow intellectually, socially, emotionally and even physically (Kim, 2016).
Video modelling is one of the evidence based practices and is frequently used in educating persons with autism. This involves recording a peer, oneself or an adult as they take part in a targeted skill. The student is then shown the video where they are supposed to internalize what they saw and replicate. As the students watches the targeted behavior they are able to learn how best to replicate a certain cue. Using display and sounds, the students’ attention is maintained. It is crucial that the videos are unique to the needs of the student to make sure they are effective. The use of video modelling can be used with other teaching methods to reinforce the abilities of the student, and they can also be used on their own (Ulke-Kurkcuoglu, 2015).
According to Burcu Ulke-Kurkcuoglu, video modelling has some level of significance and efficacy when it comes to training children with autism (Ulke-Kurkcuoglu, 2015). However, Burcu Ulke-Kurkcuoglu, in the paper A Comparison of Least-to-Most Prompting and Video Modeling for Teaching Pretend Play Skills to Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, is quick to indicate that, it is not as effective as a technique such as Least-to-Most Prompting. All the same, there is some level of intricate success associated with using video modelling when helping children suffering from autism to engage in pretense play (Ulke-Kurkcuoglu, 2015).
As Nicholas w. Gelbar, Candace Anderson, Scott Mccarthy and Tom Buggey, have indicated in their paper, quoting past research, video modeling has been found to increase the ability of participants to increase their ability to complete the steps set for them and even more importantly requiring less adults to supervise them as they do it (Gelbar, A...