Using Video Modeling to Teach Students With Autism

VM is a type of video-based instruction that shows each step in a chain of skills needed to complete a task. VM can be used in different ways to meet the unique needs of a particular learner with autism. These include traditional VM, video self-modeling (VSM), point-of-view VM, and video prompting (see Table 1). Traditional VM usually involves recording a peer or adult completing a task, which is later shown to the student. VSM shows the targeted student completed the task, usually by splicing together multiple clips of the targeted student completing each step. Point-of-view VM shows how to complete the task from the perspective of the person doing the task. This is often helpful when observing from a third-person perspective makes it difficult to see/understand what exactly must be done (e.g., putting food in a cupboard, ringing up goods for a customer’s purchase). Video prompting is similar to VM, but skills are usually presented in much more discrete steps rather than the entire task. These variations share common features—modeling the steps needed to complete a task—but also share other benefits to learners with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their teachers.