Video Modeling and Video Self-Modeling in Teaching Social Skills to Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder - Research Proposal Example

Name: Instructor: Course: Date: The Efficacy of Video Modeling and Video Self-Modeling in Teaching Social Skills to Children with ASD Introduction Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have important social-communication deficiencies (Kanner, L, 1943; Rogers, S, 2000), These deficiencies normally continue affecting children with ASD during their school peers and interring with their learning achievement and social wellbeing. Continuous deficiencies in communication and social relationships are indicative characteristics of ASD (Constantino, N, et al, 2003; Scattone, D, 2007). However, certain studies have established remedies as efficient for addressing social skills deficits in teenagers with ASD. Different methods have been established for address deficits in children with autism where they are learning, Children with ASD frequently prefer visual cues over oral cues (Quill, A, 1997). Video modeling is an efficient method for teaching social skills to learners with ASD. This modeling is based on the theory of learning via observation. This theory is formed based on the view that the individual acquires skills and learns knowledge simply by looking at the behaviors exhibited by other people without any needs for learning instructions or behaviorğlu,guidanceN,2008;(AkmanoNikopoulos, C & Keenan, M, 2006). The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the efficiency of video modeling and video-self modeling are capable of teaching social skills to students with ASD. Background Autism According to Bellini, Akullian, and Hopf, Autism is a complex neurological disorder (80). ASD is regarded as a developmental disability that begins to manifest itself in children during the early years, and it is important to point out that autism is not a result of the environmental upbringing. Children with autism experience social and communicative impairments and these deficits tend to be taxing to the people with whom they interact. There is no cure for autism. However, engaging children with autism in activities and treatment that assist them to overcome or manage their impairments is the best way to teach them how to communicate and interact with other people. Social Skills The issue of social skills among children with ASD is complex. Children with autism lack the skills and abilities to interact with other people effectively. Their ability to discern social cues, or interpret social responses or comprehend other people's intentions is significantly impaired. Thus, these children need to be taught social rules and how to read correctly and interpret actions and emotions. It is critical that children with ASD learn this important life skill since it affects their psychological state as well as ability to survive. Matson and Mahan believe that early behavioral interventions are crucial if one is to modify or eliminate some of the severe impairments and symptoms associated with autism (869). Video Modeling and Video Self-modeling Video modeling is an example of an early intervention that can be undertaken to assist children with autism overcome their impairment. This approach has been credited with numerous successes. According to Sansoti and Powell-Smith, video modeling entails allowing the audience to watch a videotape of a model engaging in particular behavior or activities that are to be imitated (163). Maione and Mirenda point out that video modeling is one of the effective ways of teaching the children with ASD to socialize, maintain hygiene, practice safe care among other social skills and behavior. The approach also incorporates video feedback, which mainly entails the audience recording themselves performing the modeled behavior or activities. The videotape is then co-viewed with the instructor who helps the audience to evaluate his or her behavior with respect to initial modeling. According to Maione and Mirenda, video modeling not only encourages learning through imitation but also drives initiative among the participants (116). Literature Review Video Modeling Video self-modeling, the point of view modeling, and basic video modeling are some of the examples of video modeling strategies that enhance the learning abilities of children with autism (LeCava 1). The implementation process consists of ten steps that cover all the aspects and factors that would promote learning. The effectiveness of the approach is attributed to the fact that is encourages restricted focus, as well as the fact that visual prompts are easily remembered (Corbett and Abdullah 4).Moreover, the approach promotes observational learning and through repetition. Children with ASD begin to retain the desired knowledge or skills. The simulations improve their ability to discern different environmental stimuli and encourage association between the learner and the model. Bellini and Akullian also acknowledge that video modeling promotes learning through observation (268). This approach is useful in teaching children the desired behavior since they are likely to model observed behavior as are motivated to follow the instructor's cues if they can relate with the instructor. Bellini and Akullian further point out that the studies have shown that the 82% of participants with ASD are likely to demonstrate improved social skills upon being exposed to the right video (269). Thus, video self-modeling is an active intervention that enables children with ASD learns social skills such as self-determination, and communication. Marione and Mirenda found out that social language among children with ASD could be promoted through video modeling and video self-modeling. The approach was also critical in assisting learners to understand the implications of their actions. Besides, during their research, they found out that participants may not always repeat the tasks or behavior as prompted by the model. However, they will observe the tasks and interpret the prompts and cues based on their level of understanding and perform related functions instead. This observation demonstrated that video self-modeling prompted the children to reflect on the actions before deciding whether to take part in it or not. This skill is important in helping them begin to achieve a greater level of awareness as well as a sense of fear of danger. The two abilities are critical social skills. The ability to communicate is an important social skill. A study by Charlop and Milstein found out that video modeling improved the conversational skills of children with autism (278). The children were able to retain the learned abilities for periods of up to 15 months. This result proved that video modeling is an effective teaching practice regarding assisting children with autism acquire and retain conversational skills. Additionally, Delano points out that video modeling promotes positive engagement between children with autism and their peers (36). The approach motivates the children to learn and improves their ability to comprehend the meaning of different verbal and non-verbal cues. Sansoti and Powell-Smith found out that video modeling assisted children with autism to increase their level of awareness, and reciprocate conversations (167). Video modeling improved the children's ability to join in discussions, and maintain the learned skills. However, the study was unable to determine the extent of generalization of competencies among children with autism. Nevertheless, the contributions of the approach could not be undermined. The improved learning is believed to the active nature of the teaching method. The pictures and sound not only capture the attention of the learner but also enables but also improves their ability to recall information. Statement of the Problem The issue of social skills among children with ASD is complex. Children with autism lack the skills and abilities to interact with other people effectively. Their ability to discern social cues, or interpret social responses or comprehend other people's intentions is significantly impaired. Video modeling is an example of an early intervention that can be undertaken to assist children with autism overcome their impairment. This approach has been credited with numerous successes. Maione and Mirenda point out that video modeling is one of the effective ways of teaching the children with ASD to socialize, maintain hygiene, practice safe care among other social skills and behavior. Different studies have been conducted to understand some of the actions or behaviors that video modeling can enhance, promote or instill in children with autism. For instance, Delano points out that video modeling encourage positive engagement between children with autism and their peers (36). The approach motivates the children to learn and improves their ability to comprehend the meaning of different verbal and non-verbal cues. Despite the information available on video modeling and social skills among children with autism, there is a need to establish how effective video modeling in teaching the social skills to children with ASD is. Many of the findings have been subjective describing the approach either as exemplary or highly efficient. It is crucial that one provides an objective analysis of the effectiveness of the approach. Objective information is more credible, reliable and contributes to the development of new knowledge and practices. Consequently, this study attempt to gather statistical data that can demonstrate to what extent is video modeling effective in teaching social skills to children with ASD. Research Question Research Aim and Objectives According to Sansoti and Powell-Smith, video modeling entails allowing the audience to watch a videotape of a model engaging in particular behavior or activities that are to be imitated (163). There is a need to understand its effectiveness of the approach in teaching children with social autism skills. Marione and Mirenda note that the method is ideal because it is unobtrusive and easily adaptable to any treatment paradigm (106). According to Corbett and Abdullah, the effectiveness of the approach is attributed to the fact that is promotes restricted focus, as well as the fact that visual prompts are easily remembered. A study by Charlop and Milstein notes that video modeling improves the conversational skills of children with autism (278). Thus, the aim of this research is to contribute to existing knowledge by providing statistical data that demonstrates the efficacy of video modeling in teaching social skills to children with ASD. Thus, the following are the objectives of the study Research Questions I. How much does the adaptability contribute towards the efficacy teaching social skills to children? II. How effective are visual prompts in teaching social skills to children with autism? III. How effective are audio cues in teaching conversational skills to children? IV. How useful is a model for teaching social skills to children with Autism? Research Objectives To establish to what extent adaptability contributes towards the efficacy of video modeling regarding teaching social skills to ASD children To establish to what extent visual prompts contributes towards efficacy of video modeling regarding teaching social skills to children with ASD To determine to what extent audio cues helps towards the effectiveness of video modeling regarding teaching social skills to children with ASD To establish to what extent the model contributes towards the efficacy of video modeling concerning teaching social skills to children with ASD. Research Design Type of Study A quantitative research design tends to be systematic and formal; thus, it is ideal for testing relationships and determining the cause and effects between the study variables. Thus, it is proposed that a quantitative research design is adopted in order to test the relationship between adaptability, the model, visual prompts, and audio cues in regard to teaching social skills to children with autism. Thus, exploratory research design will be adopted. This study design is appropriate since it allows an in-depth look at the all the aspects interconnected to video modeling. Moreover, it assists in concept testing and promotes increased understanding. The researcher will develop criteria to identify and select the participants; the principles will guide the researcher to the type of information to be gathered to establish the efficacy of audio cues, visual prompts, model, and adaptability regarding teaching social skills to children with autism. The exploratory research design will guide the design of the questionnaire, data instruments and data analysis tools. Sample Population and Sampling A sample population refers to a targeted group of individuals from whom researchers can conduct an investigation and draw conclusions. For this study, a total of 50 children with autism will be involved in the study. The children will view different videos demonstrating how to engage in various social activities. Purposive sampling will be used. This sampling approach is ideal because it allows the researcher to target specific individual in a population. Regarding this study, purpose sampling is the best since it enables the researcher to sample a specific category of the population. In this case, the study will target children with autism. Besides, this sampling technique will allow the researcher to use his or her professional judgment during the selection process. Hence, the researcher will be able to select the participants using explicit criteria. Data Collection and Data Collection Instruments Data will be collected using questions. Since the researcher will be working with children with autism, he or she will have to administer an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Interviewer-administered questionnaires are ideal because the researcher can observe and record the responses of the participants. It also assists them to clarify the meaning as well as determine whether the member is taking the exercise seriously. Additionally, the method is ideal for small samples. The researcher will have to update the progress of the children’s social skills regularly on the developed questionnaire. The questionnaire will capture the demographic information of the participant, the impact of the audio cues, visual prompts, the model, and ease of adaptability. These questions will constitute type and frequency questions, which are necessary for statistical analysis. The data to be analyzed will be gathered through the questionnaire. The data will be updated weekly; however, physical monitoring through observation will be conducted daily. Besides the questionnaire, the researcher will keep a journal to document unprecedented factors that are likely to affect the outcomes of the study. The information captured in the journal includes risks and threats that are likely to affect the results of the study. This information will be used to explain the outcome to the study. Data Analysis The data collected will be analyzing the statistical analysis program called SPSS. Once the data has been collected, it will be coded into ordinal, interval and scale data. Coding simplifies the process of computing. Once the data is encrypted, it will then be keyed into SPSS, a statistical program that will establish the descriptive statistics such as variability, as well as measures of central tendency. These measures will enable the researcher to determine the general trend of responses with respect to the different variables. The analysis will also estimate the variance. It is crucial to establish the level of variation to explain the difference in responses to the various interventions. Thus, the difference can be determined by calculating the standard deviation as well as a range of the computed data. This information will be beneficial in explaining how the children respond to either audio cue as compared to visual prompts. This comparative analysis will enable one to determine its effectiveness about teaching social skills. Besides calculating the variance, the research questions will be subjected to a t-test. This test will establish whether the hypothesis alluded to in the research questions hold. The results of the test will determine whether the extent of interdependence and significance between the variables. Thus a paired sample t-test will be beneficial in understanding the degree to which the audio cues, video prompts, the model, and ease of adaptability contribute towards the effectiveness of video modeling in teaching social skills to children with ASD. Thus, the level of social skill of the participants will be tested prior the interventions and them after. A comparison of the results will enable the researcher accept or reject the hypothesis. Dependent t-tests are ideal because they eliminate the differences between the participants. Also, it allows the researcher to detect any significant differences between the participants. Mechanisms to assure the Quality of the Study Since the study will be dealing with children, the researcher will ensure that he obtains a written consent from the guardian allowing the child to be part of the study. This measure will ensure that the child's rights are protected during the entire study. The participants will be all of the same age to eliminate the influence of age on the learning process. Additionally, all members will be allowed to watch the videos for one hour daily. This is sufficient time to engage the children without tiring or frustrating them. To ensure consistency, the videos will be watched during the morning. It is believed that at this time the concentration levels are highest; thus, the participants will pay full attention to all the aspects being monitored. Since, autism is non-discriminative the participants will be drawn from different racial and economic backgrounds. This action will ensure that the research findings are representative of the general population, and the findings are relevant to every category of people. One of the disadvantages of purpose sampling is that it is dependent on personal judgment. To address this concern, the selection criteria will be developed by a team of experts and standardized. Autism is a vital developmental disorder featured by impairments in social communication and interaction with others as well as repetitive and impaired behaviors. Research findings have established that video modeling is an important remedy, which can develop quick learning of various skills in children with autism. Video modeling is significant because it enables children watch videotapes, which engage them in preferred behaviors and gives them the opportunity to imitate such desired actions. Video modeling demonstrates most effective actors whose features (race, personality, gender and age) resemble the characteristics of the observers. This reinforces the idea that children learn from appropriate behaviors. Video modeling is a method that is more effective than other interventions. On the other hand, point of view modeling is another important remedy, which can minimize insignificant stimuli and therefore helps to promote learning. Point-of-view-modeling involves recording the intended skills or behaviors from the viewpoint of the learners. VSM (video self modeling) is another significant method used to teach children with autism how to acquire new skills and enhance the relevance of the existing skills. Video self-modeling consists of observing and imitating individual’s self on videotapes, which record particular preferred child behaviors. VSM gives children with autism the opportunity to view them performing particular behaviors on video and imitate the intended behaviors. This is an opportunity in which children observe themselves, act properly and enable them perform new. Works Cited Bellini, Scott, and Jennifer Akullian. "A meta-analysis of video modeling and video self-modeling interventions for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders." Exceptional Children 73.3 (2007): 264-287. Print Bellini, Scott, Jennifer Akullian, and Andrea Hopf. "Increasing social engagement in young children with autism spectrum disorders using video self-modeling." School Psychology Review 36.1 (2007): 80. Print Charlop, Marjorie H., and Janice P. Milstein. "Teaching autistic children conversational speech using video modeling." Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 22.3 (1989): 275-285. Print Corbett, Blythe A., and Maryam Abdullah. "Video modeling: why does it work for children with autism?" Journal of Early and Intensive Behavior Intervention 2.1 (2005): 2. Delano, Monica E. "Video modeling interventions for individuals with autism." Remedial and Special Education 28.1 (2007): 33-42. Print Fuentes, C. Autism. Lulu.com, 2008. Print. Koziol, Natalie, and Ann Arthur. An Introduction to Secondary Data Analysis. Nebraska: Nebraska Center for Research, 2009. Print LaCava, P. "Video modeling: An online training module." Autism internet modules (2008). Maione, Liana, and Pat Mirenda. "Effects of video modeling and video feedback on peer-directed social language skills of a child with autism." Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions 8.2 (2006): 106-118. Print Matson, Michael L., Sara Mahan, and Johnny L. Matson. "Parent training: A review of methods for children with autism spectrum disorders." Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders 3.4 (2009): 868-875. Print Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J., Nancy L. Leech, and Kathleen MT Collins. "Qualitative analysis techniques for the review of the literature." The Qualitative Report 17.28 (2012): 1-28. Print Sansosti, F. J., & Powell-Smith, K. A. (2008). Using computer-presented social stories and video models to increase the social communication skills of children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 10(3), 162-178. Print Read More