A comparison of video modeling with in vivo modeling for teaching children with autism

The present study was designed to compare the effectiveness of video modeling with in vivo modeling for teaching developmental skills to children with autism. A multiple baseline design across five children and within child across the two modeling conditions (video and in vivo) and across tasks was used. Each child was presented two similar tasks from his or her curriculum; one task was used for the video condition, while the other was used for the in vivo condition. Video modeling consisted of each child watching a videotape of models performing the target behavior, whereas in vivo modeling consisted of the children observing live models perform the target behavior. After the observations, children were tested for acquisition and generalization of target behaviors. Results suggest that video modeling led to faster acquisition of tasks than in vivo modeling and was effective in promoting generalization. Results are discussed in terms of video modeling's motivating and attention maintaining qualities.