The Devil is in the Details: Instructional Technology and Autism
Joshua Plavnick, PhD, BCBA-D Presented at the DOCTRID III Conference October 15, 2013
Dolphin therapy‌ Not evidence-based
Instructional technology
System of Instruction
Technology
A case study in video modeling
• First reported use with adolescents and young adults with severe ASD in 1987 (Haring et al., 1987) • Numerous replications in literature (Bellini et al., 2007) • Used to teach social, play, adaptive, and functional behavior • Has implications for tele-health with ASD • Imagine a video model at the ready to show you what to do
Cumulative requests mastered
Teaching Requests: Video vs. In-Vivo 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0
Video
In-vivo 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Weeks
As effective as it appears to be, video modeling requires careful decision-making Can anything be taught? Does the order of skills matter? Do the videos require anything fancy or special? Can anyone make them?
How can video modeling be leveraged for greater benefit?
Scope and sequence of skills • Miller and Dollard’s (1941) observational learning • The observed consequence is important for particular
learners at a certain point within that learner’s development • Imitation of an observed behavior is more likely to occur when a preferred outcome of the behavior is also observed
• Bandura and colleagues (1961; 1963; 1965; 1967) came to a similar conclusion • This concept is nowhere to be found in many video modeling research studies • Back to the first video modeling study in ASD…
With and without preferred consequence 35
Video modeling worked when the response was followed by a preferred consequence. But not at other times.
VM w/OR+
30 25 20 15
VM only
10
5 0
And replicated those outcomes with another participant.
And another.
35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0
1
2
3
Word Pairs
1
2
3
1
2
3
Generalization strategies in videos • Generalization is the performance of trained skills in novel contexts or the emergence of untaught skills • We program by: •
• •
Teaching multiple ways or examples Programming familiar items/people Behaviors that contact optimal outcomes
• We essentially teach the concept, even though I cannot explain the concept (e.g., get attention)
Percentage of trials with correct social response
Video-based Group Instruction 100 90 80 70
60
Complex Initiations
50
Social Awareness
40
Social Reciprocity
30 20 10 0 Baseline
Video Modeling
Video Fading
Teaching participants to learn • Video modeling is most often studied as an independent variable • What if we begin to study it as a dependent variable? • Does a consistent method of teaching facilitate learning to learn from that method?
Instructional Trials
Learning to learn Participant 1
Participant 2
Participant 3
10
20
16
8
15
12
10
8
5
4
6 4 2 0
0 1
2
Skill sets
3
0 1
2
Skills
3
1
2
3
Skills
The number of instructional trials necessary to perform the skill decreased with each set of skills we targeted
In other words, the students learned to learn from a video model