Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice

Advisor

Christine Reeve

Committee Member

Katrina Pann

Committee Member

Kimberly Durham

Keywords

autism, autism spectrum disorder, baseline conditions, classroom instruction, comparative study, data sheets, elementary students, individualized education plans, intervention effectiveness, multicomponent research design, neurotypical students, play behavior, play skill acquisition, play skill development, play skills, playmobil play sets, quarterly progress reports, social skills programs, special education, students with autism, traditional teaching techniques, verbal prompts, video modeling, video self-modeling

Abstract

This applied dissertation was designed to enhance the play skills of elementary students diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. The current social skills programs available at the writer’s school did not specifically target improving play skills and were not geared toward individuals with autism. The traditional teaching techniques used in the classroom to teach play skills were not adequate, as students continued to show minimal growth on quarterly progress reports and repeated yearly goals focusing on play skills on their individualized education plans.

The writer conducted a study that compared the effects of video modeling and video selfmodeling on play skill development. Neurotypical students served as the models in the video modeling intervention, and the students with autism served as the models in the video self-modeling intervention. Both interventions used Playmobil play sets and included detailed data sheets listing scripted play actions for each play set. An ABABCBC multicomponent research design was utilized to allow for comparisons between video modeling and baseline conditions and between video modeling and video self-modeling intervention conditions.

Results of the study revealed that video self-modeling interventions were effective for increasing play skills for one participant with autism and video modeling interventions with added verbal prompts were also effective for the same participant. For the other two participants, neither intervention showed a significant increase on play skill acquisition. However, one participant varied the type of play behaviors he performed with the video modeling intervention.

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