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Hindawi Publishing CorporationAutism Research and TreatmentVolume 2010, Article ID 834979, 9 pagesdoi:10.1155/2010/834979

Research Article

Using Video Self-Modelled Social Stories toTeach Social Skills to a Young Child with Autism

Stacey Litras, Dennis W. Moore, and Angelika Anderson

Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne 3166, Australia

Correspondence should be addressed to Stacey Litras, [email protected]

Received 23 November 2009; Accepted 30 March 2010

Academic Editor: Klaus-Peter Ossenkopp

Copyright © 2010 Stacey Litras et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The present study investigated the effectiveness of combining Social Stories and Video Self-Modelling (VSM) to teach social skillsto a three-year-old child with autism. A multiple-baseline across behaviors design revealed that video self-modelled Social Storieswere effective at improving all three target behaviors: greeting, inviting to play, and contingent responding. In addition, thesebehaviors successfully generalized across settings, toys, and communication partners. Concomitant behavior changes, namely,increased levels of communicative behavior and levels of social engagement were also observed. These results support theeffectiveness of video self-modelled Social Stories and illustrate the potential of combined intervention techniques for remedyingthe social deficits faced by this population.

1. Introduction

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting approxi-mately 60 per 10,000 children worldwide [1, 2]. The isolatingnature of this disorder, which results from the core deficitsin social interaction and communication, poses significantchallenges to the affected population and their families.

Much research has been devoted to develop early inter-vention strategies targeting the core deficits in autism (e.g.,Groden & Cautela (1998); [3, 4]), including social initiationswhich Koegel and associates have argued may be pivotal tomore generalized skill development [5, 6]. Targeting pivotalbehaviors for intervention should lead to more widespreadbeneficial behavior change in untargeted areas [7].

Social Stories and Video Modelling are two relativelynovel approaches which appear to hold some promiseas emerging intervention strategies. Social Stories [8, 9]are short personalised stories designed to teach childrenwith autism how to manage their behavior during socialsituations by describing where the activity is likely to takeplace, when and how it will occur, the emotional perspectivesof others involved, and potential responses the target childcould display. There is some support for using SocialStories with children with autism for a range of social skills

including increasing social initiations and contingent socialresponding [10], increasing the number of appropriatesocial interactions during free play [11], increasing sociallyadaptive behaviors [12], and increasing levels of appropriatesocial engagement [13]. Some studies have also shown SocialStory interventions to produce generalization of acquiredskills across settings [10, 13]. Thus although the researchbase on Social Stories is still quite limited, this interventionstrategy appears to hold promise [14].

There has also been considerable research interest in theuse of modelling [15], and in particular video modelling,in the treatment of children with autism. Video technologyappears well suited to children in general and particularlyfitting to the needs of children with autism [16]. Videomodelling involves a child watching specifically made videotapes of him or herself, peers or adults engaging in abehavior being taught. The effectiveness of video modellingfor children with autism has been demonstrated for a varietyof behaviors including increasing conversational speech [17],social initiations, and play-behaviors [18] and play relatedstatements [19].

Video-Self Modelling (VSM), made possible througha process called “video feed forward” [20], where editingallows observers to view themselves performing at an

2 Autism Research and Treatment

advanced level, is thought to be a particularly efficacioususe of this technique. Although Sherer et al. [21] reportedno difference in the rate of task acquisition as a functionof type of model (self or other), others have arguedthat self-modelling may promote increased self-efficacy,self-confidence, and motivation in the child [22, 23].

The effectiveness of VSM has been demonstrated inimproving behaviors such as language and social initia-tions [23], appropriate verbal responses to questions [24],and spontaneous requesting [25]. Incorporating to varyingdegrees, the explicit use of reinforcement (live reinforcementand embedding within the video), self-management proce-dures, prompting, explicit instructional rules and multipleexemplars, these interventions have led to rapid and signif-icant gains for participants, with successful generalizationacross settings in many cases [23–25]. In a recent review ofthe effectiveness of video modelling interventions includingVSM with individuals with autism, Delano [26] concludedthat the positive results from the 19 studies reviewed arepromising. In the few cases where the intervention was notimmediately effective, video-modelling rather than VSM wasused and the target behavior was social initiations. Therefore,Delano [26] suggested that when specifically teaching socialinitiations, VSM might be preferable to video-modelling andadditional procedures may need to be incorporated in theintervention.

Social Stories and VSM share several features. Bothutilise visual as well as auditory receptive channels, thuscapitalising on the relative strengths in visual processing ofmany individuals with autism. There are obvious differencesas well. Scripted Social Stories are highly structured and cuethe reader by providing explicit descriptions of the salientelements of the social environment, while VSM is minimallydemanding for social interaction and provides opportunityfor multiple exemplars/models. A combination of the twoinvolving a real life depiction of a scripted Social Story,thereby capitalising on the strengths of both, could provean effective intervention for this population. It might beparticularly useful for children for whom book reading orstory time is aversive.

Several researchers have explored the use of video mod-elling in combination with Social Stories. Hagiwara andMyles [27] combined electronically presented Social Storieswith peer modelling vignettes presented in a computer-basedformat to teach hand washing and on-task behaviors tothree children with autism. Thiemann and Goldstein [10]investigated the combined effects of written text and pictorialcuing with supplemental video feedback on the social com-munication of five children with autism. Recently Sansostiand Powell-Smith [28] employed a computer-based formatto present video modelled Social Stories to increase the socialcommunicative skills of three high-functioning children withautism. Presented as a self-advancing slide show using acomputer program, content of the personalised Social Storieswas read out by a voice over and then modelled by a similaraged peer. Children viewed their video modelled Social Storyonce a day in their school setting, immediately before thetargeted event occurred (e.g., recess). Overall video modelledSocial Stories were effective in improving rates of social

communication of participants, though additional socialreinforcement and teacher prompting were needed in twocases, and generalization of skills was only observed for oneparticipant. In summary, the VSM/Social Story package maybe an effective strategy for teaching social skills to childrenwith autism, one which capitalises on the strengths of boththese techniques.

The present study explored the application of a VideoSelf-Modelled Social Story (VSM Social Story) procedurein teaching a boy with autism three social skills: greeting,inviting to play, and contingent responding to social ini-tiations by others. It was predicted that the presentationof a VSM Social Story containing reinforcement, multipleexemplars, and explicit rules would increase the rate ofsocial initiations in the training setting. It was furtherhypothesised that social initiations would generalise and beobserved outside of the test setting with novel stimuli andsituations beyond those specifically modelled. Furthermore,it was hypothesised that increases in social initiations wouldbe accompanied by concomitant behavior changes, namely,increases in levels of verbal/communicative behavior andsocial engagement/interaction.

2. Method

2.1. Participant. The participant (pseudonym Jesse) wasaged 3 years 5 months at the commencement of training.Independent to this study, Jesse had received a formal devel-opmental assessment, identifying problems with language,socialisation, and repetitive/obsessive behaviours presentbefore age 3, thus fulfilling the criteria for a diagnosis ofautism according to the DSM-IV R (Diagnostic and Statis-tical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association-FourthEdition Revised). This clinical impression was supported byhis score of 34.5 on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale[29], indicating a mild to moderate level of autism. He wasrecruited from an early intervention center for children withdevelopmental delays and disabilities, based at a universitycampus.

At time of recruitment, Jesse attended a two-hourprogram twice a week at the early intervention center andalso met with a speech therapist for a two-hour, one-on-one session every fortnight. His verbal skills, specificallylabelling and requesting, were reported to have recentlyimproved, but his social skills remained limited. Jesse didnot generally display spontaneous vocal social initiations.Observed initiations prior to baseline included vocal requestsfor items such as a preferred toy or object, requests for helpor assistance, nonvocal requests for attention by pointing,and nonvocal requests to play or engage in an activity. Pilottesting revealed that Jesse did not respond well to the readingof trial Social Stories and his parents reported that Jesse hada general aversion to being read to.

2.2. Setting. All video presentation sessions were conductedin the family room of Jesse’s home. All test sessions were alsoconducted in Jesse’s home, using the exact locations depictedin the videos: the front door, family room, meals area, and

Autism Research and Treatment 3

kitchen. Generalization probes were obtained through free-time observations both at Jesse’s home and at the earlyintervention center.

2.3. Dependent Measures and Data Collection. Two socialinitiatory behaviors—“greetings” and “inviting to play”—and a third social skill, “contingent responding”, wereidentified in consultation with the parents and via three 20-minute, free-time observation sessions at both the homeand the early intervention center. Specific antecedents to thebehaviors, which could serve as visual cues, were identifiedand a listing of his preferred toys and tasks was also obtained.This information was used to create contextually andenvironmentally relevant Social Stories and VSM scenes withappropriate reinforcement elements to evoke motivation[30].

Dependent measures were the frequency (by opportu-nity) of the three target behaviors—“greeting”, “inviting toplay”, and “contingent responding”. In addition, two con-comitant measures, the frequency of vocal/communicativebehavior and frequency of social engagement/interaction,were obtained. Behavior specifications for the dependent andconcomitant measures are provided in Table 1.

Data were collected by the first author and Jesse’s parents.The parents were trained in the observation and recordingprocedures and also provided with instruction sheets forreview as required. Test session data were collected by thefirst author, with the exception of two specific data pointsper session, where naturalistic and contextually relevantreplication of video scenes for the greeting behavior, namely,“dad coming home from work” and “Jesse coming home withdad to mum”, required parental recording. The parents alsorecorded anecdotal data including particular reactions to ordistractions during the video viewing sessions.

2.4. Experimental Design. A single-subject, multiple-baselineacross behaviors design was employed to assess the effec-tiveness of the intervention. The study comprised of threephases: baseline, intervention, and follow up. Each phase wasexecuted consecutively in a time-lagged fashion across thethree target behaviors once a stabilised shift in performancewas evident for the previous target behavior.

2.5. Materials

2.5.1. Social Story Content. Three Social Stories were de-signed, each addressing one of the three target behaviorsand adhering to the recommended Social Story structureof two to five descriptive, perspective and/or affirmativesentences for every directive sentence [9] (The Social Storiesare available from the first author on request).

2.5.2. Video Content. Three self-modelled videos were pro-duced, with each video specifically targeting one behavior.As Jesse had an aversion to books, the sentences of theSocial Stories were translated into a dialogue between twoanimated puppets, thereby retaining the structure, meaning,and content of the Social Stories but without the traditional

book format. After an initial scene containing the title ofthe film accompanied by music, each video began with acartoon animation featuring a puppet tiger and elephant.This animation was constructed using iStop Motion. A real-life representation of the animated Social Story followed,with the participant acting out/modelling the behaviordescribed in the animated Social Story. At the conclusionof each scene, when the desired behavior was displayed,the frame would freeze, and explicit rules reiterating thetarget behavior were stated in both text and voice-oversuch as “When I see someone, I say hello”. Introduction ofrewards followed, such as text and voice-over saying “WELLDONE!”, “GOOD BOY!”, and “EXCELLENT”, stars, audiocheering, and images of the participant engaging in desiredactivities. Each video consisted of three examples of thetarget behavior, thus each video displayed three natural-scenario vignettes, at the conclusion of which reinforcementwas provided as described above, followed by a fade-out and3-second pause (blank screen) leading into the next scene.The “greeting” video for example consisted of: (a) animatedSocial Story; (b) video modelling scene 1: dad comes homefrom work and says “hello” to Jesse and Jesse says “hello”back, reinforcement provided (as described above); scene 2:researcher comes through the front door and says “hello”to Jesse and Jesse says “hello” back, reinforcement provided;scene 3: Jesse walks through front door with dad and says“hello” to mum and mum says “hello” back, reinforcementprovided. Each video was between three and five minuteslong.

A video recorder, Apple Macintosh computer and toysincluding a truck, a book, play-doh, and a Mr Potato Headwere also required for the construction of the films andthroughout test sessions.

2.6. Procedure. Prior to any data collection, the project wasapproved by the Monash University Standing Committee onEthics in Research involving Humans.

2.6.1. Video Production. Footage for VSM was obtained byusing a digital camera to record a series of orchestrated playsessions featuring Jesse and his parents (as communicationpartners). Scripts were devised and rehearsed with Jesse’sparents for each scenario. As vocalisations by the participantwere mostly faint and mumbled, recordings of an aged-matched peer saying Jesse’s lines were used. The raw footagewas edited on an Apple Macintosh laptop using the editingprogram FinalCut Pro to remove all unwanted behaviors andobvious prompts to produce sequences of the participantcorrectly performing the target behaviors. The final productswere then formatted to three digital video disks (DVD; onefor each target behavior) and a copy was issued to the parents.

2.6.2. Observation Procedures. Fifty-minute observation ses-sions were conducted twice a week, in the early evening atJesse’s home throughout baseline, intervention, and follow-up phases. The first 20 minutes of these sessions includedan in vivo reproduction of the scenes featured in the videos,thereby creating three opportunities (directly corresponding


Table 1: Definitions of Dependant Measures.

Social skill Definition

Greeting Within 2 seconds of an arrival, child acknowledges a new person with a front facing orientation andwith focus directed toward him/her, with a vocal utterance including “hello” or “hi”.

Making invitation to playChild uses one or more intelligible phrases while positioned within a meter of a peer or adult and withbody oriented toward peer or adult to express desire for them to play with him/her (e.g., “come andplay”).

Contingent response

Child responds appropriately (vocally or nonvocally) to a peer or adult’s utterance within a 3-secondinterval, through (a) acknowledging (e.g., “hmmm”), (b) agreeing (e.g., head nod, “yeah”), (c)answering a question, (d) responding with a related comment about observable objects or eventswithin the ongoing activity, (e) confirming or clarifying a question or comment from the peer or adult(e.g., “what did you say?”)

Verbal/communicative behaviour Child makes an intelligible, vocal utterance clearly directed to an adult or to a peer (not includingresponding to other’s utterances).

Social engagement/interaction

(1) Child is engaged or interacting with another person for at least 10 seconds, including self-initiatedinteractions and other initiated interactions; (2) a subset of (1) where child is engaged or interactingwith another person for at least 10 seconds not in an instrumental capacity (i.e., where child is notinteracting for the sole purpose of attaining assistance, attention, etc.)

to the three scenes depicted in each video) for Jesse todisplay each target behavior. This generally involved makingspecific toys or stimuli accessible to Jesse by discretelylaying them out within his vicinity. In an effort to allowspontaneous and natural elicitation of the target behaviors,we capitalized where possible on authentic occasions, suchas the father’s arrival home from work and the researcher’sarrival to the home on observation days as opportunitiesto assess Target Behavior 1—Greeting. (As the elicitation ofthis behavior was initially relatively weak, verbal promptingwas introduced for a series of four sessions. This involveda single prompt by parents such as “Jesse, say hello” atthe given opportunities. Prompting was not provided forany of the other behaviours). The remaining 30 minutesof the observation session was free-play time during whichno further contrived opportunities were created to elicittarget behaviors. The entire 50-minute session providedopportunity for Jesse to display generalization of the targetbehaviors using novel items or stimuli, that is, not thosespecifically modelled in the videos.

Generalization data was also collected during free-playtimes at the Early Intervention Centre.

2.6.3. Baseline. Baseline measures were obtained both preand post video production to account for any incidentallearning during the film making process. Baseline proceduresentailed the in vivo reproduction of the various scenariosdepicted in the videos. Typically this required Jesse beinginstructed to go to the relevant setting where the specifiedplay materials were laid out and where the communicationpartner/s then performed their actions.

2.6.4. Intervention, Video presentations. Jesse viewed thetarget video three times daily at approximately morning,mid-day, and early evening, requiring between three andfive minutes per viewing. Upon introduction of each newTarget Behavior, Jesse continued to view the videos fromthe previous phases. All viewing sessions were conducted by

Jesse’s parents in the family room of their home. Parents usedthe instructional delivery “It’s time to watch your movie”but no further information, prompts, or reinforcement wereprovided. To ensure adherence to protocol and increasetreatment fidelity, parents completed procedural checklistsand recorded anecdotal incidents such as distractions or thepresence of other people during viewing sessions.

2.6.5. Follow-Up. Follow-up data were obtained 3 weeks afterthe intervention ended. During this phase no video mod-elling was provided and data were obtained by conductingtest sessions and generalization probes as described above.

2.6.6. Interobserver Reliability. The first author coded andscored all test and generalization sessions. In addition atrained second observer (graduate student) attended andindependently observed 30% of the observation sessions ineach phase for all three target behaviors. Total agreementreliability was calculated by dividing the lesser frequencyby the larger and multiplying by 100%. The mean totalagreement reliability was 95% (ranging from 90–100%).

2.7. Treatment Fidelity. An advantage of video as a mediumfor intervention is the capacity it affords for consistencyand control of the treatment. In addition treatment fidelitywas monitored via a procedural checklist for Jesse’s parentsincluding prompting delivery of the verbal instructions, andrecording the number of times the video was presented andany anecdotal observations. The researcher observed 10% ofvideo viewing sessions conducted by the participant’s parentsto ensure the accuracy of protocol adhesion.

2.8. Social Validity. Social validity was measured using aparental satisfaction questionnaire on completion of thestudy. The observed concomitant behavior changes providedfurther evidence of the social validity of the intervention.


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Figure 1: Frequency of scripted social initiations pre-, during andpostintervention.

3. Results

The data for the target behaviors and concomitant behav-iors during VSM training and generalization sessions wereplotted. The data for the target behaviors were visuallyinspected to determine whether a functional relationshipexisted between VSM training and any observed behaviorchange. In addition, descriptive data analyses are presentedfor the associated concomitant behaviors and social validityresults.

Figures 1 and 2 display the frequency of the three targetbehaviors, expressed as percentages of opportunities, acrossbaseline, intervention and follow-up phases, for testing data(scripted) and generalization data, respectively.

3.1. Greeting. In baseline Jesse engaged in none of thescripted greeting behaviors (Figure 1) in the test settingsalthough he did exhibit one generalized greeting to agrandparent (Figure 2). Following commencement of theintervention, increases were first noticed by the third testsession, with 33% (one out of three) successful completionof the target behavior. The introduction of verbal promptingat session 5 was associated with a marked increase of thetarget behavior to 100%. Test session greetings maintainedat between 60% and 100% for the remainder of this

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Figure 2: Frequency of generalised social initiations pre-, duringand postintervention.

phase (phase mean = 62%), and this target behavior wasmaintained with the participant performing at 100% infollow-up.

Generalization of greetings, both at home and the earlyintervention center, was exhibited throughout interventionand follow-up phases (see Figure 2). Generalized greet-ing at the home was seen from the first session in theintervention phase, despite an absence of the behavior intraining settings at this time. Home generalizations remainedvariable throughout the intervention phase (mean= 48.5%).Maximum generalization coincided with the introductionof prompting in testing sessions. In the early interventioncenter, a steady increase was apparent across the intervention(mean = 37.5%) and follow up (mean = 66%) phases ingeneralized greetings.

3.2. Inviting to Play. During baseline Jesse displayed a fluc-tuating level of this target behavior with a single invitationto play (33% successful completion) on three occasions inthe training setting (mean = 10%) and on four occasions ingeneralized settings (mean = 10%). Following commence-ment of the intervention, frequency of the behavior in the testsetting increased markedly (mean = 69.7%), and maintainedin follow up (mean = 100%).


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Figure 3: Concomitant behavior changes pre-, during and postin-tervention.

Significant generalization of inviting to play was observedat home with mean scores of 9.9%, 79.2%, and 100%,respectively in baseline, intervention, and follow up phases,with no data points overlapping those observed in baseline.In the early intervention center, a steady increase in observedinvitations to play were recorded from zero at baseline to amean of 41.5% during the intervention phase and 75% infollow up.

3.3. Contingent Responding. In baseline low rates of contin-gent responding were observed in both test (mean = 6%)and generalization (mean = 17.2% at home, zero at the earlyintervention center) settings. Upon implementation of theintervention, a rapid increase in frequency of respondingbehaviors was evident in the test setting (mean = 66%). Thistrend was also apparent in the follow up phase (mean =82%).

Increased generalization of contingent responding rela-tive to baseline was also evident with mean scores of 8.3%,66%, and 100%, respectively in baseline, intervention, andfollow up phases in the home and zero, 50%, and 50% in theequivalent phases in the early intervention center.

3.4. Concomitant Behaviors. Figure 3 graphically depicts theconcomitant behavior frequency scores (verbal communica-tion, instrumental social engagement, and noninstrumen-tal social engagement). During baseline, Jesse exhibiteda relatively low rate of verbal communication and socialengagement. Implementation of Treatment 1 (greeting) wasassociated with slight increases in levels of these behaviors,once again this increase being most apparent with theintroduction of verbal prompts. Further increases in all threeconcomitant behaviors were evident throughout Treatments2 and 3, with these levels being maintained in the final followup phase.

3.5. Social Validity Results. The parental satisfaction ques-tionnaire and parental interviews assessed the perceivedeffectiveness of the intervention in teaching Jesse to greet,invite to play, and respond contingently. The parents’responses indicated that they perceived acceleration inJesse’s communicative development and in overall social

functioning and general behavior across the interventionperiod. In addition, the parents reported specifically onqualitative changes in Jesse’s execution of the target behaviorsover time, becoming less mechanical and more genuine.Particular improvements in the quality of target behaviorswere evident at follow-up with elimination of direct copyingof the language used in the videos and with Jesse displayingeach target behavior accurately, in his natural speakingvoice, in the correct social context and with the absence ofother verbalisations from the videos. Improved quality ofthe behaviors included specifications added to invitationsto play, such as accurately identifying (naming) who hewas inviting and what he actually wanted to play with, forexample “Stacey, let’s play ball”.

Anecdotal observations also revealed the emergence ofspontaneous farewelling behavior by the participant. Jessebegan to exhibit “goodbye” behaviors independently andconsistently from approximately session 10, through tothe end of the follow up phase. Parents reported similaroccurrences in encounters with others.

4. Discussion

The current study explored the effects of using videoself modelled Social Stories to teach three social skillsto a young child with autism. The results support thehypothesis that presentation of VSM using the structureof Social Stories, and containing reinforcement, multipleexemplars, and explicit rules would increase the rate ofsocial initiations displayed by the child. As anticipated,the results also showed that social initiations generalizedand were observed outside of the test setting and withnovel stimuli. The effectiveness of the intervention wasdemonstrated across three social behaviors: greeting, invitingto play, and contingent responding. Furthermore, the datasupport the prediction that increases in social initiationswould be accompanied by concomitant behavior changes,namely, increases in levels of vocal communicative behaviorand social engagement/interaction.

These findings are in accord with previous researchdemonstrating a positive effect of using Social Stories inteaching greetings [31], initiating comments and contingentresponses [10, 13], and video modelling in teaching-relatedbehaviors including conversation skills [17], play-relatedstatements [19], and inviting to play [18].

Furthermore, the rapid acquisition of the target behav-iors noted in the present study is consistent with previousfindings on the effects of VSM in teaching social skillsto children with autism [23–25]. With the exception of“greeting”, increased target skills were displayed followingthe very first video viewing. The initial delay in elicitinggreetings may be due to the noninstrumental nature of thisbehavior relative to either inviting or contingent responding.Nonetheless, following the addition of prompting, greetingbehaviors also improved to a level comparable to the othertarget skills.

Sansosti and Powell-Smith [28] also combined videomodelling and Social Stories to teach “joining in” and


“maintaining conversation” behaviors to three children withhigh functioning autism. For two participants in theirstudy, continual teacher prompting and social reinforcementvia child confederates were needed for these behaviors tobe displayed. In addition, generalization of acquired skillswas only found with one child. Other researchers havereported similar difficulties with video modelling includingthe necessity of adding live contingencies to video modellingmethods in order to improve skill acquisition [32] and lackof generalized effects in the absence of direct training orprogramming contingencies [11, 12, 19].

Although prompting was also introduced in the presentstudy to strengthen greeting behaviors, prompts were onlyoffered briefly and, upon their withdrawal, the desiredbehavior was maintained, including in follow-up. In addi-tion, the present study resulted in generalization acrossall three target behaviors. Methodological comparison ofthe video content used by Sansosti and Powell-Smith [28]and the present study reveals several variations which mayaccount for these differences. Sansosti and Powell-Smith didnot apply any reinforcement principles within the videomodelled Social Stories, whilst the present study providedverbal, visual and auditory reinforcement in the forms ofpraise, depictions of the participant engaged in enjoyabletasks, stars, audio cheering, and other musical sound effects.Moreover, Sansosti and Powell-Smith [28] appear not tohave provided multiple examples of the targeted behaviorsin the peer modelled videos, whereas three variant scenesfor each self-modelled target behavior were incorporatedin the present study. Further research on the possiblebenefits of inclusions such as explicit rules [32], embeddedreinforcement [23] and multiple exemplars [33], as wereutilised in this study, appears justified.

The observed trends in the concomitant behaviours inthe current study—though not sufficient to demonstratea functional relationship—support previous findings thattargeting social initiations can lead to collateral improve-ments in other, nontargeted areas of functioning [6, 7].The anecdotally reported development of spontaneous“farewelling” behaviors was an unanticipated outcome of thecurrent study. Though not formally observed, the parents’obvious surprise at the emergence of this behavior wasindicative of its novelty. Not previously reported, this isan intriguing result for an intervention of this kind. Theapparently spontaneous occurrence of farewelling behaviormay represent a generalization of greeting behavior based onthe premise that both these skills belong to the same responseclass. Others [5, 10] have suggested that treating socialbehaviors within a similar response class will ultimately leadto positive changes in related but untreated behaviors.

Though time limitations constrained both the fre-quency and duration of our postintervention maintenance-assessment, all three target behaviors and the concomitantbehaviors were successfully maintained at three-week follow-up, with increased frequency and quality of performancecompared to the intervention phase. Anecdotal observationsduring the intervention indicated that initially Jesse oftendisplayed target behaviors using the exact same language andvocal intonations as were presented in the videos including

other verbalisations such as communication partners’ linesand verbal reinforcements presented in the video. At follow-up, however, marked qualitative improvements were evident,strengthening evidence for the social validity of the outcomesof the study.

This study contributes to the growing research corpusregarding the effectiveness of technically enhanced video selfmodelling and the development of evidence-based practicesby demonstrating the effectiveness of combined interventionstrategies and supporting clinical recommendations forusing Social Story interventions in combination with othermethods to teach social skills to children with autism [34–37]. Presented via television, this study uniquely contributesto novel methods of implementing visually mediated inter-ventions of this kind and also demonstrates how interventionpackages can be applied and evaluated under naturalis-tic conditions. Video implemented interventions presentan unobtrusive teaching method and an activity enjoyedby most participants [22, 23, 38]. With the continuingdevelopment of increasingly accessible software for homeproduction of video, requiring minimal technical expertise,VSM interventions can now be easily implemented andreadily employed by teachers, parents, or practitioners innaturalistic settings including the mainstream school or thehome.

As is true of all N = 1 within subject designs, the externalvalidity and generalizability of these results can only beestablished through replication. Of particular import in thisinstance is the degree to which existing attending and imita-tion skills of the child with autism are required; this teachingtechnique may only be effective for children with autismwho demonstrate these skills. Further research establishingthe generalization boundaries here, and possible strategiesfor teaching such attending and imitation skills when notpresent would be of value, as would systematic replica-tions varying treatment intensity (duration and exposurefrequency) when working with children with more severedeficits.

In summary, this study investigated the effects of com-bining two recently developed and as yet underresearchedprocedures for remedying the social deficits of a young childwith autism. Video self-modelled Social Stories stand as apromising intervention, being straightforward and efficientto implement with possible applications across a wide arrayof behaviors. This package presents a tool appropriate toautism as it maximizes visual strengths and accounts forattention weaknesses, while also remaining an enjoyable andmotivating activity for children. Further research is neededto determine the replicability of the present findings andpossible limitations of the procedure.

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