TEACHING SELF-CARE SKILLS TO CHILDREN WITH AUTISM USING TABLET PC AND VIDEO MODELING IN NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

The aim of this paper is about an intervention based on video modeling technique, investigating how a child with an autism spectrum disorder can learn a self-care skill through the use of a tablet pc. The self-care procedure taken into consideration is about brushing teeth. The widespread use of tablet PCs today requires investigating whether the technique of video modeling can be used in natural conditions, where the child with autism can observe the right learning procedure in the appropriate context. Video modeling is an educative methodology which can be applied in different contexts (home, school, rehabilitation services, community) to gain significative and functional learnings regarding the areas of communication, daily care skills and socialization. Video modeling is a technique to support the develop of competencies and skills of children with autism. We assume that video modeling using a tablet pc can foster the acquiring of self-care skill, in an effective way and in short times. For our study we use a single case study with A-B-A research design, an experimental procedure which includes three phases: baseline (phase A), intervention (phase B), baseline (phase A). The research has been conducted in the research centre of Neapolisanit in Ottaviano (Italy) for 12 observations sessions and on one child, and for the experimentation has been used a toilet room of the Neapolisanit rehabilitation centre. The procedure of brushing the teeth has been decomposed into many small steps (17) according to the principle of the Task Analysis and 4 videos to be played on the tablet pc and useful for teaching to the child the correct procedure to clean his teeth has been recorded by one educational therapist; the task-analysis is literally the analysis of the task through which a procedure or an activity are deconstructed in several sections which facilitate the task. The child involved in our study attends four hours of rehabilitation treatments a week, and, before this experimentation, he was never involved in video modeling treatment. The research data collected during experiment give a constant number of performed behaviors in the first three baseline sessions (without tablet pc) with 11 correct behaviors of 17 steps of the task analysis. In the fourth baseline the subject performs 12 correct behaviors of 17 steps. More than half of the behaviors have already been acquired by the child without tablet pc. By the introduction of the video modeling we observe a gradual improvement: at the first, the second, the third and the fourth intervention sessions (with tablet pc with videos) we have noticed respectively 13, 15, 16 and yet 16 correct behaviors on 17. Up to the peak of 17 behaviors on 17 in the fifth session of intervention, and then return to 16 correct behavior in the sixth session. In the inversion baseline, removing the independent variable of the video (tablet pc) , the child still keeps high levels of performance, demonstrating that he has learnt behaviors that he hadn’t acquired yet in the first baseline and that he wouldn’t have acquired without the imitative stimulus of the video, which allowed him to learn new gestures to perform, which are effective to a good and complete oral hygiene. We can conclude that the video modeling using tablet pc in a natural environment has been an effective and efficient teaching modality for the children to learn a self-care skill.