Discuss is video modeling ?
Introduction
Video self modeling is one of the effective, evidence based intervention strategies that ASD individuals are subjected to improve functional communication skills, social and physical skills that have been proved to decrease the challenges related to autism.
Video modeling is a technique that is applied as an interventive measure that is applied in training for social skills and where all the participants watch a video modeling the desired behavior that encourages the imitation and practice of the behaviors and actions of the main character in the video.
The VSM (Video Self Modelling) is videotaped and the modeled behaviors recorded watched as video models (Bellini and Akullian, 2007).
Twenty-three individual-subject design research studies were carried out under the meta-analysis. All the intervention measures including maintenance and other generalized effects in the study were measured and computed using percentage of the non-overlapping data points. The results indicate that video modelings as well as VSM are the most effective strategies for addressing intervention in social-communication abilities, behavioral and functional skills especially in children with ASD. Further results show that video modeling not only promotes skill acquisition but also maintains a lasting impact on children and adolescent with ASD and is also transferred across other persons. Video modeling or VSM are intervention strategies that are within the designation of evidenced based practice (Buggey, 2009).
In 1970, Albert Bandura (1977) pioneered the use of observational learning or modeling. The research by Bandura, demonstrated that most children develop several skills by actual imitation of the actions watched by others perform. Children are motivated to imitate a role model that they perceive to be competent or similar to them.
The research subject was based on children with ASD and who took part in video-modeling interventions. The participants were aged between 3 to 20 years but majority were elementary school going children. Autism Spectrum Disorder was the specified disability under review but Asperger’s syndrome and other pervasive development disorders were also considered.
Autism is a complicated disability that stains the capacities of families, communities or even organizations if the intervention procedures are not carefully handled. The pursuit for Autism cure has led to various controversies as the condition provides fertile ground for ineffectual, untested and even harmful intervention measures (Simpson, 2005).The debate on Autism and the appropriate intervention or instructional strategies that may be applied to discern the evidence based strategies from untested interventions have in many cases ended in court battles (Yell & Drasgow, 2000). Video Modeling (VM) and video self modeling (VSM) provide models for persons with ASD with a perfected mastery of targeted behavior but the major difference between the two interventions is that, a child with ASD acts as the model in the VSM video but in VM another person assumes the role. The needs of the learners are provided for effectively under VSM and VM intervention strategies while also motivating and attending to their physical needs. Individuals with ASD are in most cases very good visual learners hence visual models make large impacts in their education and physical performance. VSM capitalizes on the nature of their learning ability to target several skills that are covered on the VSM interventions (Buggey, Hoomes, Sherberger & Williams, 2011).
The purpose of the research was to teach children and other persons below 20 years and who are struggling with ASD. The following study focuses on one adolescent male aged 16 years and his academic engagement by the use of the VSM intervention strategies delivered through the use of an iPad (Gelbar et al., 2012).
Austin was sixteen years and in 10th grade. He had a moderate intellectual ability besides his ASD condition. Austin also suffered from hearing loss as well as speech impairment. His learning abilities compared to those of the 2nd grade while his word count was below 6. When prompted many times to respond his only communication would be a high-pitched voice. He picked his nose and skin frequently until bleeding occurred while giggling, sighing and raising his hands unrelentlessly on air. Austin’s teacher identified her most pressing goal for Austin’s was his response to questions while in class. Hence increasing Austin’s response rate without being prompted was the behavior that required intervention.
The study was conducted in a class room during a science instruction class. The class had other 18 students with almost similar conditions. The classroom was divided into two to facilitate two sets of instructions.
The teacher led the class from the front using a projector with another group of students with higher functional ability based on their capacity to use the English language (Austin was included in this group) while two other paraprofessionals led another group of students with lower functional capabilities in languages. Three other student facilitators worked with in the classroom to assist group instructions while one of the student facilitators worked with Austin.
The science instruction class took place after lunch, 4 days in a week. During the period, the teacher observed the students and used discussions as blank lecture notes are projected on the white board along with videos and other internet resources like documentaries from the National geographic and also discovery channel were also utilized to instruct the students in the science class. Through the use of video data and also class observation systems, the conduct of Austin revealed several instances where he lost focus and got carried away with the documentary and video instruction and would repeatedly require prompting to focus on the written sheets. Austin’s teacher struggled to get his attention while at the same time she wanted to improve his unprompted but correct response during the science class. An unprompted response that is correct is any act of communication that is ostensibly directed towards academic content in class in response to a direct question that does not require a prompt. Prompted correct responses are communication acts that directly relate to the classroom’s academic content and in response questions from a teacher or paraprofessional or peer prompt. Incorrect response is any response or communication act that is not connected to the academic content and no response was failure to response by the students.
ABAB reversal design was utilized to evaluate the VSM effectiveness. An ABAB design allows confirmation of treatment effects by indicating behavioral changes systematically by confirming the conditions that no treatment is received as the baseline and the treatment (Barlow & Hersen, 1984). The research was conducted in 20 sessions and the outcome tabulated below.
| Percentage of Correct, Incorrect, Prompted, No | |||||
| and Spontaneous Responses | |||||
| baseline 1 | VSM 1 | Baseline 2 | VSM 2 | ||
| CR | 4% | 24% | 6% | 42% | |
| IR | 21% | 16% | 15% | 11% | |
| PR | 19% | 28% | 22% | 19% | |
| NR | 56% | 32% | 57% | 28% |
| CR | Correct responding |
| IR | Incorrect responding |
| PR | Prompted responding |
| NR | No response |
| SR | Spontaneous responding |
The analysis presented a favorable intervention for the VSM therapy (Buggey, Hoomes, Sherberger & Williams, 2011).
2. Self-efficacy is one of the major concepts when social learning theory is applied. Self-efficacy is defined as the belief that people have about their own capabilities to achieve designated levels of individual performance that may influence the events or activities that may affect their lives. The beliefs in self efficacy determine the way people think, feel, how people motivate themselves and generally behave. Individuals acquire self-efficacy in their lives from external support through encouragement and observation of individual successes (Buggey, Hoomes, Williams & Sherberger, 2010).
Meta-analysis in empirical research allows combination of various outcomes from independent studies. It is applied in clinical research to determine the effectiveness of healthcare and other applied interventions by combining data from several research activities. The validity and reliability of the meta-analysis largely depends on the review and the basis of the comparison. Meta-analysis determines the presence of heterogeneity and explores other comparisons using sensitivity analysis.
For example, video modeling technique demonstrates the desired actions and behaviors through video representation of the desired behavior.In the year 2007, Bellini and Akullian, conducted a meta-analysis of VSM for adolescent children. Over twenty three studies that were published between the years 1987 and the year 2005 were included in the meta-analysis on VSM. Seventy-three participants took part in the studies and over twenty primary researchers conducted the research that was carried out across thirteen states in four countries. The purpose of the study by Bellini and Akullian (2007) was to provide a synthesis of several research that had been conducted on VSM for children and also adolescents suffering from ASD while also examining the findings of the research studies. The meta-analysis scrutinized the interventions, maintenance as well as the generalization of the video effects on the children and adolescents with ASD. The variable observations were social communication, functional skills and behavioral functioning. The other purpose of the study was also to determine if the interventions applied under VSM met all the requirements criteria that have been outlined for all evidence-based practices in Horner et al. (2005). The meta-analysis involved the study of all the journal articles that were published between the years 1980 and 2005 using the Educational Resources Information Center known as ERIC as well as all the PsyINFO databases under such topics as Autism, ASD, VSM and VM among other data research techniques that were applicable for the exercise (Ayres and Langone, 2005).
Quality Assessment
Meta-Analysis provides quality assessment once all the relevant studies to be included in the meta-analysis have been identified. Decisions have to be made based on studies that have been sufficiently conducted and worth including. This process may introduce some bias but efficient systems in meta-analysis provides a solution of avoiding any bias based on unethical practices however explicit and objective methods or criteria for research inclusion or omission are clearly outlined and which are mostly founded on quality grounds. Sensitivity analysis in meta-analysis is applied to assess the quality of individual research quality.
Meta-analysis Overcomes Bias in Research Analysis
The problem of unsystematic review or a review of a limited portion of relevant study is that the introduction of bias. Certain reports are mostly considered for a review as they show less significant differences unlike some informal synthesis that may be tainted by reviewer’s earlier beliefs. Meta-analysis carries out rigorous systematic reviews to eliminate any possibility of bias so as to offer unbiased and reliable synthesis of the respective empirical data.
Meta-analysis Provides Precision
The precision that meta-analyses present its findings depends on the population of the data under study. Meta-analyses combine several findings from many trials with the power to detect and determine small but clinically important effects. Meta-analysis provides more precise estimates and size of the defects uncovered in the meta-analysis.
Meta-analysis Provides Transparency
The major advantage of meta-analysis in research review is the openness of the processes involved and the revelation of the decisions that the meta-analysis arrives at after systematic processes such us sensitivity analysis. To achieve a good final aggregate effect, meta-analysis allows the users of the reports to determine on their own the reasonableness and reliability of the decisions that have been taken together with the impact of the decisions made.
Meta-analysis Ensures Thorough Analysis using Sensitivity Analysis
The use of sensitivity analyses in meta-analyses provides an insight of the way in which major decisions taken on selection, inclusion and the process of aggregation of data and analyses may affect the aim of the findings. Sensitivity analysis explores several ways in which the main findings in a research report can be changed by varying or using different procedures when aggregating the data. A sensitivity analysis that is good will explore the effect of not including as well as including the several categories of the respective studies some which may still waiting to be published or their quality may be poor. Sensitivity analysis may also weigh the consistency of the various results across several subgroups like for example, defined patient groups or intervention involved. Meta-analyses without sensitivity report open the research to guesses on the impact of several important factors and other key findings.
Meta-analyses provide a systematic, detailed and quantitative approach towards synthesizing the evidence adduced to the important therapeutic questions that need to be addressed. However, drawbacks may be experienced during the execution of the meta-analyses hence most meta-analyses are basically limited by the quality and content of the underlying studies. For health care professionals, careful review of published information or meta-analyses provides a balanced assessment of their entire shortcoming hence resolving therapeutic uncertainty would be much easier as all the details are published and analyzed simultaneously.
Meta-analysis is in a dynamic period where rapid development coupled with theoretical as well as methodological advances are entirely based on findings from advanced empirical research.
Conclusion
To conclude, meta-analysis has provided a revolution on the reporting of empirical information and there are several requirements that make a suitable meta-analysis report. The main requirement of such a meta-analysis is the final execution which should be complete and unbiased in all its systematic reviews. Notwithstanding the competency of the meta-analysis, partial review of the original data would present a flawed and unsystematic conclusion that is simply inaccurate. A reliable meta-analysis presents a complete, unbiased collection and combination of all the original research studies on the same topic or therapeutic question. The major checklist for a good meta-analysis is the QUOROM (quality, of reporting of meta-analyses) assessment tool that is specifically recommended.
References
Ayres, K.M., & Langone, J. (2005). Intervention and Instruction with Video for Students with Autism: A review of the Literature. Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities, 40 (2), 183 – 196.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy, The Exercise of Control, New York; Freeman.
Bellini, S., and Akullian, J. (2007) A Meta-Analysis of Video Modelling and Video Self-Modelling Interventions for Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders, from Exceptional children, 73, pg. 261-284, retrieved October 25, 2015 from http://www.parentcenterhub.org/repository/abstract72/
Buggey, T., Hoomes, G., Sherberger, M. E., & Williams, S. (2011) Facilitating Social Initiations of Preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorders Using Video Self-Modeling, Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 26, 25 – 36.
Buggey, T., Hoomes, G., Williams, S. & Sherberger, B.M (2010). Facilitating social initiations with preschoolers with autism using self-modeling. Focus on Autism and Other Disabilities.
Buggey, T. (2009). Seeing is believing: Self-modeling Applications with Children with Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities. Baltimore; Woodbine House.
Gelbar, N. W., Anderson, C., McCarthy, S., & Buggey, T. (2012). Video Self-Modelling as an Intervention Strategy for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders, Psychology in the Schools, 49, 15-22,
Horner, R.H., Carr, E.G., Halle, J., McGee, G., Odom, A., & Wolery, M. (2005) The Use of Single-Subject Research to Identify Evidence-Based Practice in Special Education, Exceptional Children , 71, 165 – 179.
Simpson, R.L. (2005) Evidenced-based Practices and Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disorders, 20 (3), 140 – 149.
Yell, M. L., & Drasgow, E. (2000) Litigating a Free Appropriate Public Education: The Lovaas Hearings and Cases, The Journal of Special Education, 33, 205 – 214.
