Teaching Earthquake Safety Skills to Students With Autism Using Video Modeling

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of video modeling in teaching essential earthquake safety skills to students diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The targeted skills were preparing an emergency kit before an earthquake, performing the drop, cover, and hold on procedure during an earthquake, and safely transitioning to an emergency assembly point after an earthquake.

A multiple probe design across behaviors within a single-subject research framework was used. Two 16-year-old male students with ASD participated in the study. Video modeling was used to teach three earthquake safety skills representing the pre-earthquake, during-earthquake, and post-earthquake phases. Data were collected during baseline, daily-probe, full-probe, intervention, maintenance, and generalization sessions. Tau-U effect sizes were calculated to quantify intervention effects and adjust for baseline trends.

Visual analysis indicated that video modeling was effective in promoting the acquisition of all targeted earthquake safety skills. Both participants showed rapid increases in correct responding following the introduction of the intervention. The acquired skills were maintained during maintenance sessions and generalized to a different school setting. Tau-U values indicated complete nonoverlap and statistically significant intervention effects for all target behaviors.

The findings suggest that video modeling may be an effective instructional approach for teaching safety skills required before, during, and after an earthquake. The results highlight the potential of video modeling for enhancing disaster preparedness among students with ASD. Educators and practitioners may consider incorporating video modeling into safety instruction programs for students with ASD.