Effects of Video Modeling and Verbal Prompting on Social Skills Embedded within a Purchasing Activity for Students with Autism

Three junior high school students with autism were taught to engage in a series of social skills through the use of video modeling and verbal prompting as they engaged in purchasing activities in two grocery stores. A multiple baseline across students design was used to demonstrate the effectiveness of video modeling with verbal prompting on social skill acquisition within a purchasing task. Students watched the video modeling clip once during each intervention session for three weeks and demonstrated increased use of target skills in a grocery store. For generalization, skills were assessed in a second grocery store over three sessions for two weeks. Results indicated one student was successful in acquiring and generalizing social skills to a second untrained setting while two students demonstrated variable results.