"Say Cheese": teaching photography skills to adults with developmental disabilities.
Short how-to videos let adults with developmental disabilities master and keep photography skills for months.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Four adults with developmental disabilities joined a photography class.
Researchers used short video clips on a camera. Each clip showed one step: aim, click, print.
The clips played right when the adult needed them. This is called video prompting.
A multiple-baseline design proved that any gains came from the videos, not luck.
What they found
Every adult learned to take clear photos and print them on the spot.
The new skill stuck. Six months later they still snapped and printed without help.
The skill also spread. One man used the same steps to photocopy papers at his day program.
How this fits with other research
Evans et al. (2024) used the same prompting family—watch, copy, practice—to teach college students with reading disorders how to sign words. Both studies ran multiple-baseline designs and got big, lasting gains.
Falcomata et al. (2012) seems to clash. They gave adults with ID cameras, but only to photograph meals for diet records. They never taught picture taking. The camera was an assessment tool, not a skill target. Once you see the different goal, the studies no longer disagree.
Martens et al. (1989) matched the method year earlier. They used tactile prompts to teach packaging tasks to a deaf-blind student. The prompt style changed—touch cues instead of video—but the step-by-step fade worked the same way.
Why it matters
If you serve adults with developmental delays, add video prompting to your toolbox. Break any daily task into short clips. Load them on a phone or camera. Let the learner press play when stuck. The Chaturi study shows you can teach a leisure skill in weeks and keep it for half a year. Start with photography, then try cooking, laundry, or self-checkout.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
We evaluated a video prompting procedure to teach adults with developmental disabilities to take a digital photograph and print it using a laptop computer and a printer. Participants were four men with developmental disabilities. Training was conducted at the participants' residential facility. During baseline, participants were told to take a photograph, but were given no other instruction. During intervention, participants received instruction using a video prompting procedure. Video prompting consisted of watching a clip of each step of the task analysis and then having the opportunity to imitate that step. Video prompting was evaluated using a multiple-probe across participants design. Following acquisition, video prompting was removed to assess maintenance at 2, 4 and 8 weeks and at 6 months. During naturalistic probes, participants had the opportunity to take a picture of their choice of flora, surroundings or persons. All four participants learned to take and print a digital photograph with the video prompting procedures. The skills generalized to novel situations and were maintained at each follow-up probe. These data suggest that video prompting may be an effective instructional strategy for teaching digital photography skills to adults with developmental disabilities.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2011 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2010.12.006