The Combined Use of Video Modeling and Social Stories in Teaching Social Skills for Individuals with Intellectual Disability

Abstract

Intellectual disability has been addressed by different disciplines up to the present and has been defined differently depending on the views of different disciplines. Preliminary definitions of intellectual disability underline biological and medical criteria whereas educational definitions stand out when teachers and psychologists are more interested in the subject (Heward, 2003). Among these definitions, the one provided by the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disability (AAIDD) is the most widely accepted. Apart from this one, in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) by the American Psychological Association (APA) and in the system of International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10) of the World Health Organization (WHO), definitions have also been provided (Sucuoglu, 2010).AAIDD (2002) defines intellectual disability as a disability characterized by significant limitations in intellectual functioning; conceptual, social and practical skills; and adaptive behavior which originate before the age of 18 (Eripek, 2009; Hourcade, 2002). Different from AAIDD, the DSM-5 manual (2013) uses adaptive functioning instead of adaptive behavior in its definition and indicates that adaptive functioning includes three domains (conceptual, social and practical) which determine how well an individual copes with everyday tasks (APA, 2013). On the other hand, the definition provided by ICD-10 (1993) underlines the incomplete development of the mind and disorders in cognitive, linguistic, motor, and social abilities that play a role in determining level of intelligence (Eripek, 2009; Sucuoglu, 2010). It is worth noting that all of these definitions refer to disabilities in terms of conceptual, social, and practical skills that enable individuals to carry out everyday tasks apart from disabilities in mental functions. This is an indicator of the fact that social skills deficits are one of the criteria taken into account when determining intellectual disabilities.The literature has emphasized that social skills deficits, which are defined as the inability to learn various social skills or the inability to use previously acquired social skills in appropriate situations and settings, are common among individuals with intellectual disabilities (McCoy & Hermansen, 2007; Vuran 2012). The reasons why individuals with intellectual disabilities exhibit social deficits more may include the manifestation of behavioral and cognitive disabilities in addition to having limited random learning skills and interactions with peers with typical development (Huang & Cuvo, 1997; Sargent, 1991), experiencing of rejection from their peers with typical development, and being rejected by circles due to a negative perception (Sazak, 2003). These reasons negatively affect the decisions of individuals with intellectual disabilities in terms of how they should act in society, creating behavioral problems and negatively affecting the acquisition of social skills through environmental observation and modeling (Ciftci & Sucuoglu, 2004; Sargent, 1991).Overcoming social skills deficits for individuals with intellectual or other developmental disabilities can be possible by providing social skills which are taught systematically (Begun, 1996; Sugai & Lewis, 1996). In this respect, direct teaching, social reinforcement, feedback, giving clues, incidental teaching, shaping, being a model, behavioral rehearsal, cooperative learning, peer learning, video modeling, Social Stories, and pivotal response teaching are commonly used strategies for teaching social skills to individuals with intellectual disabilities (Baker, 2004; Colak, 2007; Olcay-Gul, 2012; Sargent, 1991). Video modeling and Social Stories have been the most prominent strategies in recent years.Video modeling was developed on the assumptions of observational learning theory. It is an intervention which uses video modeling instead of live modeling for teaching a new behavior or changing an existing one; it is implemented by getting learners to watch all the steps of a target behavior from a video before being taught (Bellini, Akullian, & Hopf, 2007; Charlop-Christy, Le, & Freeman, 2000; Nikopoulos & Keenan, 2006; Sansosti & Powell-Smith, 2008). …