ABA Fundamentals

A Comparison of Video Modeling and Video Prompting by Adolescents with ASD

Thomas et al. (2020) · Behavior Analysis in Practice 2020
★ The Verdict

Point-of-view video modeling teaches cooking faster and with fewer errors than video prompting for teens with autism.

✓ Read this if BCBAs teaching daily living skills to adolescents with autism in school or clinic settings.
✗ Skip if Practitioners working only with preschoolers or focusing on social conversation skills.

01Research in Context

01

What this study did

Four teens with autism watched short cooking clips on a laptop.

Two kinds of clips were shown: point-of-view modeling and video prompting.

The teens then tried to make the same snack in the school kitchen.

Researchers counted errors and time to finish each step.

02

What they found

Three out of four teens made fewer mistakes with point-of-view modeling.

They also finished the cooking steps faster.

All teens kept the skill one week later and used it in a new kitchen.

03

How this fits with other research

Richman et al. (2001) showed that any video modeling works for young kids learning to talk. Thomas et al. now show that for teens learning to cook, the exact format still matters.

Piraneh et al. (2022) found video modeling beats social stories for toothbrushing. This study adds cooking to the list of daily skills where video modeling wins.

van Timmeren et al. (2016) taught teens to start their own iPhone videos. Thomas et al. did not teach self-starting, but the skills still lasted. Together they show video modeling sticks even without extra self-management training.

Perry et al. (2022) mixed video modeling with least prompts for church tasks. Thomas et al. kept prompting out, proving the video alone can be enough for some learners.

04

Why it matters

If you teach cooking or other daily living skills to teens with autism, use point-of-view video modeling first. It cuts errors and saves teaching time. You can film the steps yourself with a phone held at eye level.

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→ Action — try this Monday

Film a 30-second point-of-view clip of making a simple snack and test it with one teen learner.

02At a glance

Intervention
video modeling
Design
alternating treatments
Sample size
4
Population
autism spectrum disorder
Finding
positive
Magnitude
medium

03Original abstract

Video-based instruction has been effective in teaching a range of skills, including functional living skills, to individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Few studies have compared the efficacy and efficiency across video modality—specifically, comparing video modeling to video prompting. Consequently, practitioners have little empirical guidance when selecting between procedural variations of video-based instruction. Using an adaptive alternating-treatments design with a baseline, we evaluated the comparative effectiveness of point-of-view video modeling and video prompting on the percentage of meal preparation tasks completed correctly and on-task behavior with 4 adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. We found video modeling to be effective and efficient in the acquisition of meal preparation skills across 3 of the 4 participants. Across participants, video prompting resulted in more errors than video modeling did. Skills generalized to an untrained location and were maintained at a 3-week follow-up. Stakeholders reported procedures, goals, and outcomes as socially valid.

Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2020 · doi:10.1007/s40617-019-00402-0