etadd_47(3) - Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities

tained; however, these types of targeted, discrete
interventions are not easily available
and the developmental knowledge of play sequences
is not clinically mainstreamed.
Clearly, best results would be obtained primarily
in a clinical setting such as ours, from
professionals with training and experience on
play and language in the instruction of children
on the autism spectrum or with other
developmental disabilities. If this best case is
not available or attainable, video modeling
might be effectively implemented by parents
or lesser–trained caregivers of children with
autism when given proper written instruction.
Furthermore, video modeling could serve as a
useful adjunct to traditional therapies and instruction,
which are in limited supply – and
the costs of which are significant for families
already struggling with the financial burden of
a child with a developmental disability.
As noted by other researchers, video modeling
can be scaled to instruct multiple children
at the same developmental level and with
the same approximate existing skill sets. Further,
the methodology seems to be particularly
efficacious for persons with autism. Although
the initial investment in properly
preparing video models and developing accompanying
instructional methodology could
be high, once prepared, the video models are
relatively easy to reuse to address the need for
repetitive presentation. Further, video models
offer a restricted field of focus and high motivation
(Charlop & Milstein, 1989; Corbett &
Abdullah, 2005; Dorwick & Jesdale, 1991;
Stahmer et al., 2003; Paterson & Arco, 2007;
Zihni & Zihni, 2005).
A primary weakness of the investigation is
the sample size; however, the extensive data
collected over the 10 week period allows for
the examination of change over time. The
data collection, detailed coding, and social
validity were relative strengths of this investigation.
Another relative strength was that
each child participated in the same therapeutic
program, receiving the same treatment,
throughout the examination, meaning that
no child received play intervention through
the program (although language development
was a strong focus of the program), and
that no child received unknown, other services
that might have affected the child’s play
and language skills. Play benefits could thus
be attributed primarily to the treatment, and
language benefits could be at least partially
attributed to the treatment. Because each participant
was also receiving intensive speech
therapy two times per week for 30 minutes per
session individually or in a group, the results
on appropriate play–related utterances and
mean length of utterance and overall language
should be interpreted with caution. Another
limitation of the investigation was that
no follow–up probes were conducted to measure
whether the participants retained the
skills generalized during the course of the
investigation.
Although numerous studies have investigated
video modeling as a methodology to
teach play and language skills in a variety of
children, including the generalization of acquired
skills, none have combined the three
components that this study employed: video
modeling, a developmentally sequenced approach
to teaching play, and a MLU outcome.
Further research into the efficacy of video
modeling to teach play and language skills is
warranted in order to determine the most
effective way to ensure generalization and retention
of learned skills. Of particular interest
would be studies to determine if additional
benefits might be gained through even more
fine-grained instruction matched to more specific
developmental levels.
References
American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic
and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.).
Washington: American Psychiatric Association.
Baron-Cohen, S. (1987). Autism and symbolic play.
British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 5, 139–
148.
Barton, E. E., & Wolery, M. (2008). Teaching pretend
play to children with disabilites: A review of
the literature. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education,
28, 109–125.
Bellini, S., & Akullian, J. (2007). A meta-analysis of
video modeling and video self-modeling interventions
for children and adolescents with autism
spectrum disorders. Exceptional Children, 73, 264–
287.
Charlop, M., & Milstein, J. (1989). Teaching autistic
children conversational speech using video modeling.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 22, 275–
285.
Charlop-Christy, M. H., Le, L., & Freeman, K. A.
316 / Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities-September 2012