Evaluating the Utility of Commercial Videotapes for Teaching Hand Washing to Children With Autism

Abstract

Abstract We evaluated the effects of using a commercially available video model to teach three preschoolers with autism to wash their hands. While one child learned 80% of the hand washing steps, 2 of the 3 children did not learn from the commercial model. All were subsequently exposed to a customized video model, which resulted in at least some acquisition of the skill for the two students who did not learn from the commercial model. DESCRIPTORS: autism, adaptive skills, daily living skills, hand washing, video modeling ********** Video modeling is an instructional strategy in which a child watches a model perform a target skill on video and then practices the skill. A substantial research base supports the effectiveness of video modeling for teaching children with autism a variety of skills including communication skills (e.g., Charlop & Milstein, 1989; Sherer et al., 2001), daily living skills (e.g., Shipley-Benamou, Lutzker, & Taubman, 2002), play skills (e.g., D'Ateno, Mangiapanello, & Taylor, 2003; Taylor, Levin, & Jasper, 1999), social interaction skills (e.g., Nikopoulos & Keenan, 2003), and perspective taking (e.g., Charlop-Christy & Daneshvar, 2003; LeBlanc et al., 2003). In addition to its demonstrated effectiveness, video modeling may have other compelling advantages over other teaching strategies. Charlop-Christy, Le, and Freeman (2000) showed that the video modeling resulted in faster acquisition of skills and was more cost effective than live modeling. Video modeling has also has been shown to promote generalization and maintenance of the skills taught (Haring, Kennedy, Adams, & Pitts-Conway, 1987; Charlop & Milstein, 1989) and to result in superior skill generalization compared to live modeling (Charlop-Christy et al., 2000). Some authors suggest that children with autism often enjoy video modeling and that the predictability and the avoidance of face-to-face social interactions when watching videos may contribute to the reinforcing nature of the experience (Corbett & Abdullah, 2005; Charlop-Chrisry et al., 2000). Despite these documented and potential advantages of video modeling and the large body of research showing its effectiveness, it has been our collective experience that video modeling is not widely used in public school environments. One potential obstacle to the use of video models may be the equipment and expertise necessary to make the video for the targeted skill. Although most schools and homes have the equipment to play a video recording, creating an appropriate video for the purposes of video model requires access to video recording equipment (i.e., camera) and the equipment and knowledge for editing the video footage and transferring it to an appropriate medium. Obstacles associated with equipment and technical expertise can be circumvented by the use of commercially available video models of commonly taught skills. Several commercially produced video models are currently available on the Internet and are specifically targeted towards educational services for children with autism (e.g., http://www.special-kids.com/video.cfm, http://www.watchmelearn.com). However, no empirical evaluations of the effectiveness of commercially available video models currently exist. Previous video-modeling experiments have generally reported using custom made video models created specifically for the children in the studies (Charlop-Christy & Daneshvar, 2003; LeBlanc et al., 2003; Taylor et al., 1999). A commercial video might differ from custom tapes in important ways such as limited similarity between the model and the learner and depiction of different materials or setting than those available to the learner, among others. This study investigated the effectiveness of a commercially available video model for teaching children with autism a hand washing chain. Methods Participants Three boys aged 3 to 5 years who were diagnosed with autism participated. …