| dc.description.abstract | Autism is one of the most widely recognised developmental disorders,
affecting a variety of cognitive and physical areas to differing extents. The area of
play skills has been found to be a particularly detrimental deficit in children with
autism due to its links to other later areas of development such as mastery of
language and ability to interact with peers (Lewis, Boucher, Lupton et al., 2000).
Specifically functional and symbolic play behaviours have been the focus of a large
amount of play-related autism interventions of late (Williams, Reddy & Costall, 2001;
Lewis, Boucher, Lupton et al. 2000).
In the present study we utilise the video modelling technique to teach lowfunctioning
children with autism both functional and symbolic play behaviours. The
results of two case studies revealed that the method is highly effective in this
population. The generalisation of the acquired skills across stimuli, however, did not
have great success, although maintenance of the acquired skills across one month
was successful in this group. The present study does strongly support the use of
video modelling to effectively teach new play skills to children with autism. It also,
however, highlights areas in need of further focused research before the technique
can become a standardised and publicly accessible tool.
Autism | en |
