The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

In this presentation, the speakers will demonstrate how parents and professionals can use technology (interactive white boards and digital video-recording devices) to effectively address many of the core deficits of young children with autism spectrum disorders, including attention, motivation, perspective-taking, peer interaction skills, play skills and independence. Participants will walk away with concrete information on how to incorporate these technologies into their homes, communities and school programs in order to stimulate and expand the digital minds of the 21st century learner. The 21^st century brings us a new digital generation of children who process information and interact with the world around them in new and different ways.  These are not the children that our educational programs were designed for, nor are they the children that we were taught to teach.  It’s up to us as parents and professionals to modify the environments in which these children learn as well as the strategies we use to teach in order to complement and foster their digital minds.  In this presentation, we will demonstrate how technology can be used to target essential skill development for young children with autism spectrum disorders.  The technologies that we will focus on are interactive whiteboards (primarily for use in classrooms and private-therapy settings) and digital video-recording devices (for classroom, home and community use).  Our background is in early childhood special education; however, the strategies we discuss and the examples we provide will be useful for those working with elementary-aged children as well. 

When teaching using an interactive whiteboard the possibilities are endless.  We were fortunate to have had these installed in our early childhood special education and inclusion classrooms 4 years ago and have observed the following benefits; increased levels of motivation, increased levels of attention and abilities to maintain attention for longer periods of time, increased social cognitive skills and social skills, increased independence with classroom routines, increased fine motor skills, etc.  Our students’ rates of learning have increased as well as their willingness to participate in group-learning activities.  In this presentation, we will show many examples of how interactive whiteboards can be used to target motivation, attention, perspective taking, peer interactions, play skills, knowledge of daily routines and independence.  We will also show a variety of video clips of our students (ages 2-5) interacting with this form of technology. 

The use of digital video-recording devices in order to impact student learning has become a very popular topic and practice in the field of special education.  We have been using video-recording devices in our early childhood special education program for over one year in order to target specific skills through video self-modeling and video modeling.  These strategies are supported by current research and are effective in the home, school and community settings.  In this presentation, we will differentiate between both strategies and provide a brief overview of how easy it is to do.  We will also share examples of how we have used these strategies to increase independence within daily routines, increase social interactions, increase flexibility, and decrease problem behaviors.  We will also touch on how digital video-recording devices can be used to increase a child’s level of self-awareness.  A variety of video modeling and video self-modeling example videos will be shown.  All of these videos have been effective at increasing specific skills in the home, school and/or community settings with our current or past students ages 2-6.

 Those who attend our session will be able to answer the following questions…

-Why is it important to incorporate technology into our homes and classrooms?

-What is an interactive whiteboard?

-What are the benefits of using this form of technology with students with ASD?

-What are some of the skills I can target using an interactive whiteboard?

-What is video modeling?

-What is video self-modeling?

-What are some of the skills I can target using video modeling and/or video-self modeling?

As professionals working within a school district, we are highly encouraged to use evidence-based practices to facilitate the development of our students’ skills.  The National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorders (NPDC on ASD) has identified video modeling as one of only 24 evidence-based practices for individuals with ASD.  This means that the efficacy of video modeling has been established through at least 2 high quality experimental design studies, five high quality single-subject design studies or a combination of the both.  These studies have all been peer-reviewed and published in a variety of scientific journals.  The research supporting video modeling and video-self modeling continues to grow as more professionals learn about this strategy and incorporate it into their teaching.

Interactive whiteboards were introduced in 1991; however, they were used primarily in the business world until they began popping up in classrooms around the United States in 2004.  Since they are such a new technology and many educators have yet to use one today, the body of evidence to support their use with students is meager.  In 2007, Wilcox and Flaherty completed a study on the use of interactive whiteboards with students with ASD and reported the following results; increased attention and engagement, increased recall abilities, increased spontaneous commenting, increased social interaction skills and increased ability to remain seated during group learning activities.  Another study on the use of interactive whiteboards reported increases in on-task behavior in children with ASD.  Although the body of research supporting this technology is weak, we are first-hand observers of the countless benefits it has had on our students with ASD over the past 5 years.

 

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