Motivating a Student With Autism Spectrum Disorder to Participate in Morning Exercises: Effects of Video-Based Interventions Incorporating Special Interests

Abstract

Study objective: The present study investigated effects of video-based interventions incorporating a student's interests. Design: Multiple baseline design across target behaviors. Participant: A 7-year-old male student with autism spectrum disorder. Setting: 4 types of morning exercises in the playground of the participant's school. Intervention: In video hero modeling (VHM), the participant's hero served as a model engaging in the target behaviors. In video self-and-hero modeling (VSHM), the hero engaged in the target behaviors with the participant and praised him. The participant watched the video immediately before the target behaviors needed to be exhibited. Measure: The participation rate or level was measured for each of the target behaviors. Results: The first and second behaviors improved after video hero modeling was introduced. These behaviors became stable after video self-and-hero modeling was introduced. The remaining behaviors improved without introducing video hero modeling, when the performance of the first behavior was stable at its highest level. Conclusion: Further research is needed to replicate the experiment and to elucidate factors contributing to its effectiveness.