Video Modelling and Autism Ranking:

Future Research

Summary of Existing Research

Individual studies

There is a small amount of high quality research evidence (one small randomised controlled trial and one small controlled trial) on the use of video modelling as an intervention for autistic children but the results of that research are mixed.

There is a considerable amount of low quality evidence (more than 70 single-case design studies with three or more participants) which suggests that video modelling may be an effective way to teach some autistic children a variety of different behaviours and skills in a variety of contexts.

There is insufficient evidence to determine if video modelling is an effective way to teach autistic adults any behaviours or skills.

Research Reviews

There have been a number of scientific reviews of video modelling as an intervention for autistic individuals. The majority of these concluded that video modelling is an effective intervention. For example, Acar and Diken (2012) reported,

“It was also noted that results of these studies showed that video-modeling was effective on teaching many behaviors or skills such as social skills, play skills, language and communication skills, functional skills, self-care skills, daily life skills. Based on the review process, it can be suggested that video-modeling can be used widely in practice on teaching various behaviors and skills to individuals with autistic disorders and other developmental disabilities.”

However, a minority of reviews have suggested that the evidence is less positive. For example, Sng et al (2014) reported,

“Based on the research reviewed, it would appear that video modelling was in the marginally effective range … in improving the conversational skills of children and adolescents with ASD, when applied to basic skills such as initiating and responding”.

Recommendations for Future Research

Future studies should

• Use more scientifically robust, experimental methodologies (such as randomised controlled trials) with larger numbers of participants.
• Provide more details about the participants, such as whether they have a formal diagnosis of autism, their level of intellectual ability etc.
• Involve a wider range of participants (such as adults, females, individuals from ethnic minority groups).
• Identify if there are any prerequisite skills (such as the ability to pay attention) that may make some individuals more likely to benefit from video modelling.
• Examine which elements of video modelling (such as the type of model, the length of the video and the number of times it should be repeated) are most likely to benefit autistic people.
• Compare video modelling with other interventions which are designed to achieve similar results, such as social stories
• Identify if video modelling can be used to teach skills not previously examined, for example, study skills
• Allow the participants to get used to the video technology before evaluating any effects it might have.
• Identify if video modelling has any beneficial effects in the medium to long term
• Identify if video modelling has any beneficial effects in real world settings
• Involve autistic people in the design, development and evaluation of those studies

Updated

17 Jun 2022

Last Review

01 Sep 2017

Next Review

01 Dec 2023