An evaluation of video‐prompting procedures via telehealth to teach first aid skills to children with intellectual and developmental disabilities
Zoom video-prompting teaches kids with IDD to treat insect stings, cuts, and burns themselves, and the skill lasts at least a month.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Five kids with intellectual or developmental disabilities joined Zoom from home.
A therapist shared short clips that showed each first-aid step in order.
The child copied the clip, then practiced for real with a doll or bandage.
Sessions ran 20–30 minutes until the child could treat a sting, cut, or burn alone.
What they found
All five kids mastered every skill in 6–10 sessions.
One month later they still fixed a fake burn or sting without help.
They also helped a new adult who pretended to get hurt, showing the skill moved to new people.
How this fits with other research
Ausenhus et al. (2019) and Ruppel et al. (2023) already proved Zoom feedback trains staff fast.
Sureshkumar flips the camera: now the child, not the adult, is the learner.
Ferguson et al. (2022) coached parents through telehealth and saw small child gains.
Sureshkumar skips the parent coach and teaches the child directly, yet keeps high mastery.
Together the four papers show telehealth can train both ends of the teaching chain.
Why it matters
You no longer need to drive to clinic to teach safety skills.
Send three-step videos, watch the child practice live, and give quick feedback.
Parents only supply the kit; you supply the prompting and praise.
Try it next time a family asks for self-care goals but can’t come in person.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Unintentional injuries are one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). First aid training involves teaching critical first aid skills, some of which are designed to treat unintentional injuries. To date, no study has (a) evaluated the effects of a video-prompting procedure to teach first aid skills to children with IDD or (b) attempted to teach these skills to children by using a telehealth delivery format. We used a concurrent multiple-baseline-across-skills design to evaluate the efficacy of a video-prompting procedure via telehealth to teach five children with IDD to perform first aid on themselves for insect stings, minor cuts, and minor burns under simulated conditions. For all participants, our procedure produced large improvements that maintained for a minimum of 4 weeks. Furthermore, the effects of the training generalized to novel confederates for all participants, and these effects maintained for a minimum of 4 weeks.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2024 · doi:10.1002/jaba.1031