Comparing Human Video Modeling to Animated Video Modeling for Learners with Autism

People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may have difficulty responding vocally with intraverbals and physically with motor imitation during conversations. Not responding with an appropriate word coupled with an absence of body language could compromise social opportunities. The literature lists scores of studies implementing human video modeling to increase skills of people with ASD but not much research has been conducted using animated video modeling (Kellems et al., 2020). This study compared human video modeling to animated videos to teach vocal intraverbal responding along with motor imitations of facial expression and body language to eight children with ASD. Seven of the eight participants acquired the target behaviors with one or both methods to some degree. Two participants demonstrated more of the target behaviors with the human video, three demonstrated more with the animated, and little difference in learning was observed for three participants. One participant only demonstrated target behaviors following the human video and another only demonstrated target behaviors following the animated video, suggesting that both methods could be effective and neither was conclusively superior.