Intervention Proposal Essay

Boudreau, E., & D’Entremont, B. (2010). Improving the pretend play skills of preschoolers with autism spectrum disorders: The effects of video modeling. Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities, 22(4), 415-431.

Purpose of the study

This study examined the effects of an intervention that used video modeling to enhance play skills in preschoolers with autism using particular toy sets. The authors’ aim was to enrich literature by assessing the ability to generalize play skills with novel toys and maintain them after one month.

Method

This study took place in the children’s cubbies located at the intervention center that these two preschoolers attended. A veterinary set was used for the one child and a construction set for the other.

Also, they stated that the reinforcement can be reduced or even removed as there are other studies that prove that it is not required for the acquisition of play skills. Another suggestion that was made had to do with the creation of multiple videos as a way to boost novel play. The experimenters suggested that while multiple video vignettes used with a school-aged child with autism have proved effective for the enrichment of unscripted verbalizations, it is useful to see how multiple videos can enhance the development of novel play’s behavior in preschoolers with

The baseline and the intervention sessions were held in a conference room of this facility. The video viewing took place in the same room or in a room with a television monitor, videocassette recorder, and two chairs. Regarding the materials, three different toy sets were used; a baking set, a toy shopping cart with plastic food, and a tea party set. The dependent variable in this study was the number of scripted and unscripted verbalizations and the number of modeled and not-modeled actions. The independent variable was the video modeling intervention procedure.

The research’s design was a multiple baseline across response categories that were presented randomly. The next treatment session was introduced after the achievement of eight verbal and eight motor responses –either modeled or unmodeled actions and verbalizations- in two consecutive sessions.

Results and conclusions

The use of video modeling contributed to the increase of verbal and motor responses while novel and not-modeled responses did not show a raise both during the baseline and intervention phases. As each video included many examples of verbal and motor responses the preschooler acquired relatively fast the modeled