Yes they can! An approach to observational learning in low-functioning children with autism.
Two short videos taught nonverbal preschoolers with autism a five-step sequence, proving they can learn by watching.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team worked with four nonverbal preschoolers with autism.
Each child watched a two-minute video twice.
The video showed an adult opening a tricky box in five exact steps.
Kids had to copy the whole chain to get a toy inside.
What they found
After just two views, every child opened the box alone.
They matched the adult's step order almost perfectly.
Their skill looked like that of typical kids the same age.
How this fits with other research
Lancioni et al. (2009) and Meier et al. (2012) showed that teaching one skill can spark another without extra lessons.
Nadel et al. (2011) adds that watching alone can teach a whole chain, not just single words.
Tsiouri et al. (2012) used hands-on DTT to get first words in similar kids.
This study shows video can do the heavy lifting instead of adult-led drills.
Hu et al. (2023) later echoed the finding: minimal input still produced new skills in preschoolers with autism.
Why it matters
You can teach complex tasks without talking.
Two quick video clips may replace many live trials.
Try filming daily routines like hand-washing or backpack packing.
Show the clip twice, then step back and let the child try.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Film a peer or adult doing a three-step classroom routine and show it twice before the child tries it.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Learning by doing and learning by observing are two facets of the tight coupling between perception and action discovered at the brain level. Developmental studies of observational learning still remain rare and even more rare are studies documenting the capacities of low-functioning children with autism to learn by observation. In the first investigation of this question, twenty nonverbal children with autism with a developmental age of 24 and 36 months, and twenty matched typical children, were presented with an experimental box requiring that a hierarchical sequence of subgoals be performed before it could be opened. A 9-day testing procedure included four presentations of the red box and two video demonstrations of how to open it. Two scores were computed, one concerning the number of sub-goals fulfilled and the other the relevant manipulations of the material. Within-group analyses revealed that only the typical children learned partly or fully the sequence of subgoals after the first video-demonstration. The addition of a second demonstration allowed the two subgroups with autism to learn partly or fully the sequence of subgoals. The differences between learning to manipulate and learning to produce a goal are discussed in terms of relationships between understanding actions and understanding action-effect relations.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2011 · doi:10.1177/1362361310386508