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2548
Establishing Repertoires of Thematic Play in Children with Autism using Video Modeling- BCBA Session
Saturday, July 14, 2007: 12:30 PM-1:45 PM
Mapmakers A & B (The Westin Kierland Resort & Spa)
Video modeling is emerging as an effective procedure for teaching play to children with autism. 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. 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 and language with novel toys.
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 these skills without specific training. Video modeling has been demonstrated to be effective in teaching a variety of skills to children with autism. 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 and language with novel toys.
The development of our curriculum has been multi-faceted. Typically developing children have been observed playing and excerpts from their play was used to develop the thematic scripts used to teach children with autism. Scripts include language spoken by figurines as well as play and language emitted by the child. Video instruction is now an integral part of our preschool social skills and play curriculum. In this session we will review how to develop scripts using commercially available play sets, create video modeling tapes, and provide video instruction to children with autism. We will also discuss the advantages of this teaching procedure and the technical issues encountered when implementing the procedures and the implications for this technology as an easy and effective strategy for teachers and speech and language pathologists to use to each play and other skills.
Learning Objectives:
- 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
Presenter:
Rebecca MacDonald, Ph.D., BCBA
Program Director
The New England Center for Children
Dr. Rebecca MacDonald is a Licensed Psychologist and a Board Certified Behavior Analyst who serves as the Director of Intensive Instructional Preschool Program at the New England Center for Children. Rebecca has presented her research at numerous conferences over the past twenty years and published studies that have appeared in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, and Research in Developmental Disabilities. Dr. MacDonald’s research interests currently include; assessment and teaching joint attention, teaching play and social reciprocity to children with autism, and measuring clinical outcomes of early intensive behavior intervention.