Effects of a Video Model to Teach Students with Moderate Intellectual Disability to Use Key Features of an iPhone

Abstract

This study evaluated the effects of video modeling on teaching three high school students with moderate intellectual disability to perform three activities on an iPhone 3GS. This study is a replication and extension of the Hammond, Whatley, Ayres, and Gast (2010) study in which researchers taught this same set of skills using a slightly different format of instruction and a less complex hand-held device. In the current study, a multiple probe design across three behaviors, replicated across three participants, was used to evaluate the effects of video modeling on participants’ capacities to (a) take a photograph of a person, (b) look at photographs by starting a slideshow, and (c) access and view a video. Generalization to a more complex home screen arrangement featuring multiple unused buttons not present during intervention was also measured following intervention. Results of the present study indicate that video modeling was effective in teaching target behaviors in a near-errorless fashion. Additionally, during generalization, students were able to navigate to each of the three tasks despite the addition of 14 other distracter buttons, not previously present without additional training.