Thanks to a generous grant from the Special Kids Foundation, our school team was able to participate in a fully-funded video modeling training this month. The training was led by Alissa York, educational consultant, who recently retired from the Naperville-area school districts, where she trained teachers and worked closely with students, to implement video modeling within their classrooms.
Why Video Modeling?
- Video modeling has been identified by the National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorders as an evidence-based practice for teaching students with autism.
What is video modeling?
- With a video model, students follow a video prompt to complete a task. Have you ever searched YouTube for a video on how to do something, because it's easier to do if you see someone else do it? Well, it's that same idea. The video can be of the student doing the task, of someone else doing the task, or completion of the task from a first-person perspective.
Why is this important?
- With a video model, students will rely less on staff support for completion of tasks - especially activities of daily living and vocational tasks. The videos can be loaded onto their personal devices, for watching at job and volunteer sites - and at home!
But wait! PACTT classrooms don't have the technology to implement this kind of thing!
- Ah, there's the bonus of the grant funding! Each of our classrooms will receive at least two (possibly more) brand new iPads, to support the initiative ... and to use for additional educational supports throughout the students' day.