Video activity schedules to support academic learning for children with autism spectrum disorder.

Abstract

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have deficits in communication and engage in restrictive and repetitive behaviors that may impede their ability to learn, particularly in school environments. Evidence-based practices such as visual supports and video modeling have been used to support individuals with ASD. Activity schedules, a type of visual support and video modeling have both demonstrated effectiveness across a variety of skills and settings. However, less is known about what skills or contexts are appropriate for combining the two interventions, known as a video activity schedule. A systematic review was conducted to understand the current research regarding video activity schedules to support skill acquisition (i.e., learning) for individuals with ASD. The results of the review and areas for future research can be found in Chapter Two. Based on the results, a limited number of studies evaluated use of video activity schedules to support academic tasks in general education classrooms. Furthermore, no studies evaluated its use with peers. Therefore, research in this area seems warranted. Chapter Three describes an experimental study that evaluates use of video activity schedules to complete math center activities with young children with ASD and typically developing peers, including one participant in a general education classroom. Chapter Four contains the results of the experimental study, and Chapter Five provides a discussion of the results noting areas for future research. Overall, video activity schedules improved activity completion and on-task behavior for children with ASD and their peers during academic learning activities, but some concerns may need to be considered before using them. Additional research in this area is warranted.