Video Modeling: First steps towards social engagement

This story, written by a mother of an 8 year old girl with Autism, recounts how the use of video modeling supported her daughter with social interactions. Not only were the outcomes of the video modeling strategy positive for her daughter, they were also positive for her peers.

We decided to try video modeling for our 8 year old daughter "S" who has Autism Spectrum Disorder. She is a very sociable child, but being fairly non-verbal she doesn’t know how to engage her friends. When a friend (or anyone) said "hi" to her, we would always have to prompt her to say "hi" back. Our first video would therefore be getting S to respond when someone says hi to her. We filmed a video with the following dialogue: