Benefits of Using Video Modeling to Teach Social Skills in ABA

Video modeling is an evidence-based prompting strategy that is commonly used to increase positive behaviors and aid in skill acquisition in people with autism syndrome disorder, as well as other disorders. It is a common teaching method used in Chicago ABA Therapy, where a person watches a video of someone completing a specific activity and imitates that activity themselves.

When it comes to ABA therapy,  the therapy itself talks a lot of “evidence-based practices” in teaching skills. Hence, video modeling is an example of such evidence-based practice that has been demonstrated in many studies to be an effective teaching tool.

Below you’ll find some of the reasons why every ABA Therapists should benefit from video modeling to offer improved treatment to their autistic children and adults.

Benefits of Using Video Modeling

Several researchers have supported the use of video modeling as an instructional method in ABA therapy. Gardner stated that video modeling was more effective than traditional in-vivo modeling which was typically used for instruction.

Domire also found several benefits of using video modeling, which included faster skill acquisition rates, improved patient performance, and an increase of independent correct responses. He also proved that video modeling also leads to a greater ability to generalize skills that are learned outside of the therapy setting.

There are numerous other reasons why video modeling has been proved to be effective:

Easier to Attend Videos

Most individuals with autistic syndrome, and other disorders, opt for screen time as they have an easier time attending to videos than real-life situations. Moreover, Individuals who are fond of watching videos will attend better to videos.

Easier to Edit for Each Specific Individual

Videos can be edited out to be tailored for each child, and can also be used to simplify situations as well as to avoid common distractions in real-life environments.  For example, therapists can edit out other students in the area on the video whose noise might be distracting each child in therapy sessions.

Overcomes Stimulus Over Selectivity

For an individual with autistic syndrome disorder, sensory problems may make the real-world environment overstimulating.  Furthermore, people with ASD often struggle with stimulus over selectivity, which is a phenomenon whereby an individual focuses on only one aspect of an object or environment while ignoring other aspects. Most children are unable to focus on the therapist’s voice as they are hearing the children next to them.

By minimizing sensory stimuli, children can concentrate more on the video. Children with autism, for instance, are often very easily distracted and cannot attend to humans or even their environment. Thus, by minimizing attentional requirements, requiring the child to look only at a small spatial area (on the video), and to hear only the necessary language, children are able to direct their focus to relevant stimuli. Hence, with video modeling, videos can be edited to just show the relevant information.

Videos Can be Repeated

Repetition is practice, especially in ABA therapy sessions. Every individual needs repetition in order to learn a skill well. For skills to be easily retrieved and carried out, one must repeat them.

Thus, with video modeling, videos can also be rewound and repeated, unlike real life. This allows the individual on the spectrum to watch videos multiple times to perfect a skill or behavior. Video programs are very convenient and simple to create.

Helps Teach a Variety of Skills

Video modeling also appears to be particularly beneficial for teaching a variety of skills to people, including increasing vocalization and communication, social and play skills, emotion processing, perspective taking, academics, and adaptive behavior.

Children who are engaged in an activity learn much faster. Therefore, video modeling is commonly used to stimulate the visual senses. Children with ASD are usually visual learners and learn better from visual teaching.

Helpful to Children Who are Good at Imitating

Most children are also good at imitating and they learn better from observing a skill in action than by explaining it.  For instance, while teaching a child how to play a board game, it might be more effective to show them how to play through a video. This is also very true for numerous other social skills- for example, improving communication skills, carrying out daily activities, and so on.

Makes Therapy Sessions and Teaching Fun

Therapy sessions with video modeling become fun and flexible for the children.

Many therapists make use of video modeling in order to make teaching and learning easier. Apart from the children finding it more fun, it also helps reduce stress, uses a multi-sensory teaching approach, and also a variety of other ways that can be used within a teaching setting. Therapy sessions and teaching come to life when children watch, learn, imitate, and learn skills.

Reduces Stress and Anxiety in Children

Stress and anxiety create a negative environment, which also makes learning skills and behavior in therapy sessions difficult. In a traditional teaching situation, the need for person-to-person interaction can result in stress and anxiety. A child is unnecessarily burdened by the need to overcome this stress and anxiety before they can focus on what is being taught in therapy sessions. Thus, video modeling helps reduce stress and anxiety in children, which helps them learn and adjust better in ABA therapy.

Removes Intrusive Prompting

Video modeling also removes some intrusive prompting. For instance, working in therapy with some older children, at times, is not helpful or appropriate telling them what to do all the time. Thus, this is where video modeling is used to teach both the skills beforehand, and also review the skill with some constructive criticism.

Reduction of Costs

Lastly, the cost and time required to create a video modeling program are also comparatively less than those linked with traditional teaching methods in ABA therapies. Implementation of video modeling programs, moreover,  can also reduce the overall cost of ABA therapy services as these programs can be delivered by paraprofessionals, behavior technicians, as well as family members as well.