Each year, the TASH Conference strengthens the disability field by connecting attendees to innovative information and resources, facilitating connections between stakeholders within the disability movement, and helping attendees reignite their passion for an inclusive world. This year’s conference theme, “Gateway to Equity,” explores inclusive communities, schools, and workplaces that support people with disabilities, including those with complex support needs, in living a fair, just, and balanced life. Return to TASH website.
In this poster presentation I will present six case studies investigating the effects of a video-based intervention, called "Video Hero Modeling" (VHM), on improving self-care skills of elementary-aged students with developmental disabilities. They were enrolled in a special school for students with intellectual disabilities. Five were low functioning students with autism spectrum disorders and the remaining one was a student with an intellectual disability. In VHM, each of the students watched a video in which a hero, with which the student was preoccupied, engages in the student's target behavior immediately before the student had to exhibit the behavior. When the hero was readily available as realistic-looking figures, the main process of developing the VHM was as follows: 1. Wear single colored gloves and sleeves and manipulate the hero figure engaging in the target behavior in front of the same colored wall. 2. Film the hero engaging in the target behavior in #1. 3. Use the keying function of a video-editing software to make the color transparent and overlap it with a scene of the natural setting where the student is required to exhibit the target behavior. 4. Insert voice message.
When the hero was an actor or cartoon character from a TV program which no realistic-looking representation was commercially available, the main process of developing the VHM was as follows: 1. Film an adult modeling the target behavior in a natural setting where the student is required to exhibit the target behavior. 2. Edit the video in a way that includes only the part of the adult (e.g., below the neck or nose). 3. Film the hero on a TV program. 4. Use the rod brush function of a video-editing software to cut off the animated face of the hero. 5. Use the keying function of a video-editing software to make the color transparent and overlap it with the scene edited in #2. 6. Insert voice message.
Results indicated that five out of six students dramatically improved their performance of the self-care skills. Two of the five students talked about the videos while engaging in the corresponding task. Furthermore, one student said, "I am (hero's name)," while engaging in the target behavior. Although the five students, who benefited from VHM, pretended he or she is the hero during free time, the remaining one student did not. All students smiled while watching the VHM, however.
In conclusion, VHM could be used to help elementary-aged students with developmental disabilities improve their self-care skills if pretending they are the hero is observed during free time.
Engaging in some self-care skills may be aversive to some students. In addition, adults who teach the aversive skills may be aversive to the students. VHM has the potential to make engaging in self-care skills enjoyable and valuable to the students because engaging in the skills results in being like the hero. In other words, VHM has the potential to transform what teachers want to teach into what students want to learn. This transformation promotes students' self-determination and improves their quality of life. In this sense, VHM is a gateway to equity.
