Teaching students with developmental disabilities to operate an iPod Touch(®) to listen to music.

Three students with developmental disabilities learned to tap an iPod Touch and play their favorite songs. The team filmed a short video on the same device. Each student watched the clip, then tried the steps alone.

A multiple-baseline design tracked how many prompts they needed. When the video was the only teaching tool, all three kids reached the mastery line.

Every student hit the mastery criterion and kept the skill weeks later with zero prompts. The iPod stayed in their hands the whole time — no adult had to guide their fingers.

The skill generalized to new songs they had never opened during training.

Yakubova et al. (2013) ran the same logic on a SMART Board. Students with autism or ID played their own video models and self-monitored each step. Both studies show self-run touchscreens work for task chains.

Belmonte et al. (2008) built a custom audiobook reader and also cut prompts for adults with ID. Their device looked different, but the goal — independent leisure tech — lines up perfectly.

Collins et al. (2009) and Lee et al. (2020) flip the camera around: they use video modeling to train staff, not students. The tool is the same; the learner changes. Together the four papers say VM is a Swiss-army knife for both sides of the teaching equation.

You can hand the learner the same gadget they will use in real life, film the steps on it, and walk away. No extra software, no bulky switches, no netbook. Try it next session: record three taps on the learner’s own tablet, let the clip run full-screen, and count how many prompts fade.