The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

The purpose of this session will be to present a model for teachers and parents to use to teach thematic pretend play using video modeling. We will review how to develop scripts, make video modeling tapes and provide video instruction to children with autism. Pretend play is an important part of a typical child's development and contributes to their acquisition of language and social interaction skills. Children with autism often do not develop pretend play. Video modeling has been demonstrated to be effective to teach a variety of skills to children with autism (see reference list). Several studies that we have conducted demonstrating the effectiveness of video modeling teaching procedures to teach independent pretend play to children with autism will be reviewed. In addition, data will be presented from our most recent work, teaching cooperative play between children with autism and typically developing peers using video modeling, as well as strategies for extending play to novel toys. Video modeling is now an integral part of our preschool social skills and play curriculum. As part of our preschool educational program we work closely with families in their home. Video modeling is a teaching strategy parents have begun to use in their homes. The session will include a description of a model we have developed for parents to use to teach pretend play to their children at home. This model has been effective for teaching a variety of play scripts to a child with autism using commercially available play sets, such as a kitchen set, or a tool set. Parents have developed play scripts for these toys and then videotaped themselves playing with the materials and following the scripts. They have used these video-modeling videotapes to teach their child with autism to play appropriately with the toys in their home. Parents have reported that their children are showing increases in pretend play with the trained toys and with other toys in the house. The advantages of this teaching procedure and the technical issues encounter by both professionals and parents when implementing these procedures will be reviewed. Video technology is an easy and effective strategy for parents to use to teach play and other skills. Learner outcomes: 1. Define video modeling as a teaching procedure and its advantages. 2. Describe how to teach thematic pretend play involving actions and verbalizations around the play scenarios using video modeling procedures. 3. Describe how to create new play scripts with a variety of commercially available toys.

Content Area: Social Skills