Using Video-based Group Instruction to Teach Social Skills to Individuals with Autism

Description

Social skills play a significant role in the development of relationships with others and they are also necessary to navigate educational, vocational, and daily living contexts. Despite their importance, there is considerable variability in the mastery of social skills among individuals and deficits in social skills persist into adulthood. Video-based group instruction (VGI) is a behavior-analytic social skills group intervention for adolescents with ASD that can be used to teach social skills via video modeling and opportunities for learners to practice the skill and receive feedback from others. Video modeling may be beneficial for teaching social interactions because it can readily depict the antecedents and consequences that correspond to the target behavior, which might help the observer learn what to do, as well as when and why to do it. Recommended strategies will draw on our experimental studies conducted over 10 years (Plavnick, Sam, Hume, & Odom, 2013; Stauch, Plavnick, Kaid, MacFarland 2015; Stauch, Plavnick, Sankar, & Bernacki, 2018; Plavnick & Dueñas, 2018). This presentation will describe considerations, logistical tactics, and practical strategies for using VGI with adolescents with ASD that may ease implementation of video modeling in a group setting.

About the Speaker

Tiffany Stauch is an assistant professor at Michigan State University in the Department of Counseling Educational Psychology, and Special Education (CEPSE) and director of the master’s program in Applied Behavior Analysis. Her research interests include ways to support individuals with disabilities in work place settings as well as the use application of video modeling to teach complex skills to adolescents with autism. She is also interested in methods to promote generalization of skills, such as equivalence based instruction, matrix training, and multiple exemplar training.