Teaching Social Skills to Children with Asperger’s and High Functioning Autism: An Evaluation of Video Self-Modeling and Behavior Skills Training

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of video self-modeling and\nbehavior skills training to teach social skills to children with Asperger’s and high\nfunctioning autism. The targeted social skills were social initiations and social responses.\nThe video self-modeling alone condition was implemented first using a video\nfeedforward approach. A behavior skills training (BST) procedure was implemented\nfollowing the video self-modeling alone condition for each participant. BST consisted of\ninstructions, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback. The frequency of each target behavior\nwas scored from videotapes using 10-second frequency within interval recording. After\nthe video self-modeling was introduced, a mean increase was demonstrated in the target\nbehaviors for 3 of the 4 participants. However, following the video self-modeling plus\nbehavior skills training procedures, the social skills increased further for each participant.\nFollow up measures showed that the social interactions for each participant remained\nhigher than baseline, however slightly lower than levels during BST+VSM.