Review of Video Modeling with Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Abstract

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) often engage in behavior that is disruptive in the classroom, impedes educational progress, and inhibits peer relationships. Video modeling has been demonstrated to be an effective intervention for other challenging populations (e.g., autism) and has been identified as a feasible intervention within schools. This review examined the efficacy of video modeling as an intervention for students with EBD. The sixteen studies included are evaluated in terms of participants, intervention procedures, dependent variables, and results. Studies are categorized and discussed according to the behavior targeted for intervention (i.e., increasing peer interaction, increasing on-task behavior, and decreasing inappropriate behavior). Results suggest that video modeling is an effective intervention for each of these target behaviors. However, gaps in the research (e.g., limited social validity data) exist and warrant future research. E motional and behavioral disorders (EBD) is a term created by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004) and refers to the spectrum of students who experience social, emotional, and behavioral problems who are not otherwise served under special education (Cook et al., 2008). The number of students described as having EBD is increasing (Sawka, McCurdy, & Mannella, 2002). Indeed, the number of students between the ages of three and 21 served in federally-supported programs in the emotional disturbance category from 1976 to 2004 nearly doubled, from 283,000 to 489,000 (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2007). Despite this recorded increase, this group of students has been empirically demonstrated to be both under-identified and underserved (Walker, Nishioka, Zeller, Severson, & Feil, 2000). Students with EBD often engage in behavior that is disruptive in the classroom, impedes educational progress, and inhibits their ability to form and maintain peer relationships (Cook et al., 2008; Hitchcock, Dowrick, & Prater, 2003; Kern-Dunlap, 1992; Trout, Nordness, Pierce,