Numerous applications, frequently just called apps, have been developed to support teaching new behavior and to increase existing behaviors. They are being used in classrooms and homes to produce socially significant benefits to students with autism. Listed below are some lists of Video Modeling applications that are available to teach children with ASD.
Research
Across numerous countries, including the US, small-scale scientific studies on emerging technologies are under way. A paper by Marks and Milne (2008), entitled iPod Therefore I Can: Enhancing the Learning of Children with Intellectual Disabilities through Emerging Technologies, monitored the progress of 10 children with autism using the iPod Touch at a school in Victoria, Australia. A boy, who had been struggling for years to learn how to wash his hands, was shown photographs of himself on the iPod washing his hands correctly. While he was shown the pictures, there were voice-overs and pictorials reinforcing his correct hand-washing behavior. The study reported that it was not long before he was washing his hands successfully (Marks & Milne, 2008).
Another study conducted in the United States, published in the Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions (2009), found that teaching autistic students desired behaviors with instructional demonstrations via the iPod (also known as Video Modeling) improved their ability to move between classrooms without wandering off or hitting each other. The study found the iPod was optimal because video clips could be easily repeated, widely distributed, and watched anywhere. Video Modeling has been identified as an Evidenced-based Practice by the National Professional Development Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders (Nikopoulos, Canavan, & Nikopoulou-Smyrni, 2009).
Application
Numerous applications, frequently just called apps, have been developed to support teaching new behavior and to increase existing behaviors. They are being used in classrooms and homes to produce socially significant benefits to students with autism. Listed below are some lists of Video Modeling applications that are available to teach children with ASD.
iPrompts is a mobile, visual support aid (no voice output) for the iPhone and iPod Touch. This app provides several picture-based prompting tools for use by caregivers as they help individuals to transition from one activity to the next, understand upcoming events, make choices, and focus on the task at hand.
Model Me Going Places™ is a great visual teaching tool for helping a child learn to navigate challenging locations in the community. Each location contains a photo slide show of children modeling appropriate behavior.
My Pictures Talk is a fun, creative, and useful app to use with children of all ages. This app is ideal for quickly creating videos, picture slideshows, and talking photo albums with a mobile device like an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad.
Stories2Learn (S2L) offers parents and educators the ability to create personalized stories using photos, text, and audio messages. These stories can be used to promote an individual’s literacy, for leisure, or to teach social skills. In addition, S2L comes preloaded with a story illustrating the skills necessary to play a game with a friend.
References
Marks, G., & Milne, J. (2008). iPod therefore I can : Enhancing the learning of children with intellectual disabilities through emerging technologies. Paper presented at the International Conference on Information Communication Technologies in Education, Corfu: Greece. Retrieved from http://sixestate.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/marks086.pdf
Nikopoulos C.K., Canavan C., & Nikopoulou-Smyrni P. (2009). Generalized effects of video modeling on establishing instructional stimulus control in children with autism: Results of a preliminary study. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions. 11(4), 198-207.
