Children with autism fail to imitate from an early age and this lack of imitation is a salient diagnostic marker for the disorder. For children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), increased imitation skills appear to be related to increased skill development in a variety of areas. Video modeling was recently validated as a technique to support imitation acquisition in young children with autism. The purpose of this research was to determine if there is a functional relation between caregiver implemented Video Modeling Imitation Training (VMIT) via iPad and increased imitation skills in young children with autism. In addition, a secondary analysis of language development after exposure to VMIT was also conducted. A multiple baseline design across four caregivers and their children with autism was implemented. Results indicated that all four caregivers were able to successfully create video models on an iPad when provided with minimal training and implement VMIT with fidelity for their children. All four children made substantial gains in their imitation skills during caregiver implemented treatment. Imitation skills maintained post treatment and, to varying degrees, generalized to imitation of live models. Expressive language skills increased to varying degrees for all participants.
1. Imitation and autism
For over 40 years, researchers have explored how to support skill development in children with ASD (Dawson and Adams, 1984, Lovaas, 1987, Lovaas et al., 1967 and Rogers et al., 1996). One skill that has garnered interest is imitation. Severity of autism is correlated with impaired imitation skills (Rogers, Hepburn, Stackhouse, & Wehner, 2003). As such, children with autism fail to imitate from an early age and this lack of imitation is a salient diagnostic marker for the disorder (Lord et al., 2000). For children with ASD, better imitation skills appear to be related to improved language performance (Stone, Ousley, & Littleford, 1997), play skills (Libby, Powell, Messer, & Jordan, 1997), and social skills (Carpenter et al., 2002 and Ingersoll, 2011).
Until recently, imitation skills were taught in discrete, analog settings in adult-led exchanges (Cardon and Wilcox, 2011, Ingersoll and Schreibman, 2006 and Lovaas et al., 1967). Although some skill acquisition occurred in these settings, generalization of skills was extremely limited (Dawson & Adams, 1984). Recently, researchers have found that for children with ASD, imitation acquisition and generalization improves in naturalistic settings during child-motivated interactions (Cardon and Wilcox, 2011, Charlop-Christy et al., 2000, Ingersoll et al., 2006 and Ingersoll and Schreibman, 2006).
