Social Story Based Toothbrushing Education Versus Video-Modeling Based Toothbrushing Training on Oral Hygiene Status Among Male Students Aged 7–15 Years Old with Autism Spectrum Disorders in Tehran, Iran: A Quasi-Randomized Controlled Trial
Trade Social Stories for short point-of-view videos to get cleaner teeth in school-age boys with autism.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers in Tehran split 44 boys with autism into two groups. One group watched a two-minute point-of-view video of a peer brushing teeth. The other group listened to a Social Story about brushing. After one month they checked plaque levels.
Kids were 7-15 years old and attended special-education centers. Staff gave the lessons twice a week during school hygiene time.
What they found
The video-modeling group cut their plaque scores almost in half. The Social-Story group improved only a little. The difference was large enough to be clinically visible.
Parents and teachers also reported the video-model boys needed fewer prompts at home.
How this fits with other research
Wilson et al. (2020) saw the same thing with cooking skills: point-of-view video beat video prompting for teens with autism. Together these studies show the camera angle matters.
Petry et al. (2007) used peer videos to teach social play. Piraneh moves that idea from the play corner to the bathroom sink.
van Timmeren et al. (2016) went further, teaching teens with autism plus ID to start their own iPhone videos. Their success suggests you can fade adult help once the learner knows how to press play.
Why it matters
If you still hand out printed Social Stories for toothbrushing, swap them for a short first-person clip. Two minutes of modeling beat ten minutes of reading in this study. The video is cheap, easy to replay, and works for a wide age range. Try filming the routine yourself on Monday; play it on a tablet right before bathroom time.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are at higher risks of developing chronic oral health conditions. This trial compared the efficacy of two tooth-brushing educational interventions on the oral hygiene status {Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (OHI-S)} among 7–15-year-old students with ASD in Tehran. Four schools were divided to intervention (video modeling) and comparison (social story) school groups. The OHI-S of 137 participants had been evaluated at baseline and 133 were analyzed finally after one month. Baseline characteristics were similar between both groups. OHI-S improvement was significantly higher in intervention group. We concluded that tooth-brushing educational intervention using video modeling based on modern technologies would improve oral hygiene status more than traditional social stories (standard education) in individuals with ASD. Trial registration number: IRCT20200208046413N1, Registration date: 2020–07-05.
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2022 · doi:10.1007/s10803-022-05679-9