News and Knowledge

OAR-funded researchers Joshua Plavnick, Ph.D., and Brooke Ingersoll, Ph.D., Michigan State University, conducted their study, Enhancing Traditional Group Social Skill Instruction using Video-based Group Instruction Tactics, in 2013. The purposes of the study were to:

• Compare the effects of video-based instructional tactics to traditional direct instruction with modeling on the social skill performance of children with ASD
• Assess whether participants would access video-based content when it was made available outside of social skills sessions via an online learning management system.

Study Design

To implement this research study, they recruited 11 children between the ages of 8 and 12 with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to participate in two 14-week social skills groups at the Michigan State University Psychology Clinic. Five children participated in the first 14-week session and six in the second. The children attended weekly social skills sessions. The program was divided into four, three-session units covering social behaviors shown to be delayed or absent among many school-aged children with high-functioning ASD.

Each unit was randomly assigned to video-based or live instruction, with subsequent units alternating between the two. Facilitators delivered content either live or through video and then discussed the content with the children or had them role-play skills and receive feedback. The web-based system includes video examples of the skills or concepts taught during the preceding session and self-check questions to help the child assess his or her understanding of social scenarios using a multiple-choice format and automated feedback.

At the same time, parents participated in an education group that provided information about how social skills could be enhanced outside of the group sessions.

Study Evaluation

To evaluate the effectiveness of the instruction, the researchers relied on three tools:

• Observation: During all social skills group sessions, observers recorded the extent to which children accurately performed a specific social skill after receiving instruction in that skill.
• Electronic tracking of video-based content: The website tracked how often the children logged into and accessed the content.
• Rating scale and behavior checklist: The evaluations were used to measure how parents perceived their children’s behavior had changed after the intervention.

Study Outcomes

The researchers reported these outcomes:

• The children demonstrated increased levels of social competence and decreases in challenging behaviors post-treatment, according to parent-reported measures from done before and after the instruction. They also observed gains in the children’s social skill knowledge. Taken together, these findings offer some support for the effectiveness of the program, though the researchers note that the findings should be considered with caution since there was not a control group.

• As predicted, the children learned the targeted social skills through both the live instruction and the video-based instruction. Average accurate responding during video-based instruction was 81.5 percent and during live instruction was 75 percent. Although video-based instruction led to slightly greater improvements and less variability in skill performance than live instruction, differences between the conditions were relatively modest.

Despite the clear lack of differences between instructional conditions, video modeling may still present several structural advantages over live modeling for group social skills instruction. First, a single instructor could effectively provide video-based instruction, while the instruction involving live modeling required two instructors. Second, the children were generally more attentive to the video models than the live models and exhibited fewer off-task behaviors during instruction. Instruction for the video models took less time to administer than the live instruction did.

The findings of this study are particularly relevant for service providers. Because the videos were successful in capturing the children’s attention and because there was a slight edge in performance, videos may be a good way for service providers to provide instruction to larger groups of children. Using video also enables providers to increase the amount of instruction by allowing children to access the content outside of the group via the Internet. While the electronic tracking data the researchers used showed a lot of variability in use, they believe that was partially due to how difficult the site was to use. Improving user interface may improve those rates. They also suggest that tying use of the website outside of session to rewards within the session could also improve website usage.