Group video teaching could provide area schools with an effective and practical way to teach adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) important social skills, a Michigan State University researcher says.
“The group-based instructional method is more likely to be adopted by schools, where these individuals are primarily served, then is an approach that requires one-to-one teacher to student ratios,” said
Joshua Plavnick, assistant professor of special education at MSU.
Allowing educators to teach students with ASD in larger groups will help public schools stretch their budgets for special education while preserving a high educational standard. Prior to Plavnick’s study, there was no study indicating that social skills could be taught to more than one student with ASD at a time.
A public school in Livonia is participating in a test of the procedures and eventually schools in the Greater Lansing area will be recruited providing a direct benefit to students with ASD in our area. In the future, Plavnick hopes to be able to provide educators with an implementation manual and a website that will provide support in the form of a video library.
Although the results of this study are preliminary, they indicate that students may be able to learn to follow video models on broader topics than just learning explicit skills. Plavnick’s team will continue to define flexible procedures to better accommodate the differences in each group, resolve issues with feasibility and sustained implementation by teachers.
Plavnick’s co-authors are Ann Sam of 3-C Research Institute and Samuel Odom and Kara Hume of the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute.
Source: Joshoua Plavnick, Michigan State University
Writer: Tashmica Torok, Innovation News Editor
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