Self-Directed Video Prompting and Least-to-Most Prompting: Examining Ways of Increasing Vocational Skill Acquisition Among Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Intellectual Disability

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of point-of-view video prompting (VP) as a self-prompting strategy with a least-to-most prompting (LMP) system on the rapidity of skill acquisition of two students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and two students with intellectual disability (ID) when working on school-based vocational tasks. We used multiple probes across students design of single-case experimental methodology to examine whether or not causal relation existed between the intervention and students’ vocational skill acquisition and follow-up performance. Target tasks involved both process and basic functional mathematics steps that required students to pay attention to the process of task completion rather than the functional step itself. All students showed immediate and considerable improvement in skill acquisition between baseline and intervention. Furthermore, all students completed the tasks with an average of over 90% accuracy once the LMP was removed. The four students in this study required two to six intervention trials to reach 100% accuracy without the use of LMP, with a mean of four trials. Tau-U effect size showed a strong effect of the intervention on skill acquisition and follow-up performance. VP and LMP as a combined intervention can be effective in teaching vocational tasks that involve process steps to students with both ASD and ID. VP can be a useful support for students with ASD and ID in school, community, and employment settings to decrease reliance on adult prompting and increase independence.