Teaching Social Skills Using Video Modeling Interventions

Abstract

Difficulty with social skills is a distinctive characteristic of many students with special needs, even those with mild disabilities. The literature supports many approaches to teaching social skills, yet many of these interventions require one-on-one intensive training for implementation, and/or are being conducted in laboratory or clinical settings rather than in naturalistic environments. As technology is becoming a growing component of social skills intervention through the use of Smartboards, Ipads, computers, and other electronic devices, an increasingly popular method with equal support from the literature is the use of video modeling—a demonstration of a desired behavior that the student imitates. The purpose of this article is to describe Bandura's (1977) view of learning and how this theory relates to the use of video modeling for the purpose of social skills intervention. The authors also will provide an overview of current products that are available to provide social skills intervention using video modeling.