Teaching Social Skills to Children with Special Needs Using Video Modelling

Abstract

Video modelling was used to teach 4 different social skills to four children aged between 6 and 10 years. Two of the children had formal diagnosis for autism spectrum disorder, one child had a formal diagnosis of attention deficit disorder and displayed traits of autism, and one child was currently being diagnosed and displayed traits of autism. The 4 different social skills were greeting and small talk, initiation and responding to conversation and play, initiation for conversation and play, and turn taking. The aim of this study was to build on the current literature on the efficacy and usability of video modelling for teaching social skills to children with autism. A single-subject, multiple baseline design was used. The overall results showed that video modelling was effective as a resource for teaching social skills to children with autism spectrum disorder and other deficits. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed at the end.