Using Video Prompting and Constant Time Delay to Teach an Internet Search Basic Skill to Students with Intellectual Disabilities

We evaluated a video prompting and a constant time delay procedure for teaching three primary school students with moderate intellectual disabilities to access the Internet and download pictures related to participation in a classroom History project. Video clips were used as an antecedent prompt and as an error correction technique within a constant time delay (CTD) procedure. Training, using a 29-step task analysis, was conducted in the students’ special education classrooms. The prompting procedure was introduced in a multiple baseline across subjects design. Video prompting was effective in promoting rapid acquisition of the task for all three students. Following acquisition, observations suggested that the new skill was further generalized to another trainer, novel materials, and to another setting. In a final phase then, video prompting was removed and maintenance in the absence of video prompting was assessed at 1, 3, and 18 weeks. Performance decreased at the last follow-up session, but stabilized at 82.7–89.6% correct. These data suggest that video prompting may be an effective instructional strategy for teaching Internet skills to students with moderate intellectual disabilities. Computer technology and use of the Internet have potential to broaden the lives and increase the independence of people with intellectual disabilities. Indeed, computer and an Internet connection are considered important tools for gaining greater independence and social integration (Kaye, 2000). Critical to this assumption is the understanding of how computer technology can support students with intellectual disabilities in accessing, managing, analysing, and sharing information. Access to information and communication technologies might offer these students limitless opportunities for knowledge acquisition and can promote individualized and lifelong learning (Howard, 2003). A number of authors have shifted educators’ attention to the importance of curriculum and standard-based reform for students with disabilities (e.g., King-Sears, 2001; Wehmeyer, Latin, & Agran, 2001). major topic concerning access to the general curriculum for students with intellectual disabilities involves the centrality of curriculum modifications to this effort. Much of the focus in curriculum modifications has been on the role of computer technology and Internet use in enabling students to access curriculum and participate in inclusive classroom settings (Wehmeyer et al.). For example, in the subject of History, a major goal in the Greek curriculum for fourth grade students is to become familiar with monuments of ancient Greek civilization. Inclusive practices that focus in the participation of a student with moderate intellectual disabilities could therefore include learning activities that aim to enhance the student’s skills in downloading and sharing pictures of monuments from the Internet. By sharing such pictures with their classroom peers, the student may be better enabled to contribute in classroom projects while at the Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Dimitrios Zisimopoulos, University of Patras, V. Varela Palaiopanagia, 30300 Nafpaktos, GREECE. Email: [email protected] Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 2011, 46(2), 238–250 © Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities 238 / Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities-June 2011 same moment became familiar with the monuments. Nevertheless, according to Davies, Stock, and Wehmeyer (2001), access to the Internet is often restricted for students with intellectual disabilities for a variety of reasons, such as limited opportunities to use computers, lack of appropriate and cognitively accessible Internet-access software, and barriers to computer use associated with the complexity of operating systems literacy and writing requirements. Despite the fact that the utilization of a specialized web browser could, potentially, enhance independent Internet access for students with intellectual disabilities there are two major concerns regarding the use of such technology. First, there is limited availability of such technology and the development and widespread use that ensures usability, simplicity while enhancing at the same moment its capacity for more complex functions (i.e., send and receive e-mail) is challenging. Secondly, even in the case of the release of a specialized web browser there are still issues of generalization to be solved because a potential user with intellectual disability might experience problems in learning how to access the Internet across a range of contexts (e.g., in a friend’s computer or in a community based work setting) that provide only a common browser. After all, an important outcome for a student with intellectual disabilities when learning new behaviors or skills is to respond appropriately to the natural cues available in the environment (Dever, 1988). In the past few years several innovative interventions have focused on developing new and more effective instructional procedures, such as video prompting, for teaching daily living skills or other adaptive behaviors to individuals with developmental disabilities, (e.g., Canella-Malone et al., 2006; Goodson, Sigafoos, O’Reilly, Cannella, & Lancioni, 2007; Norman, Collins, & Schuster, 2001; Sigafoos et al., 2005; Sigafoos et al., 2007). Video prompting, an instructional technique of video technology differs comparing to video modeling in two distinct ways. Video prompting consists of showing each step of the task and then giving the participant an opportunity to perform that step before moving on to view the next step in the videotaped task analysis (Sigafoos et al., 2005). In contrast, video modeling consists of a single video presenting a model performing from beginning to end the target behavior or completing the designated task. That is, individuals in the former case have to watch only a relative brief video comparing to the longer duration video used in the latter case. Canella-Malone et al. (2006) considered this variable, that is, the partial task instruction with short video clips, as a plausible explanation for video prompting being more effective than video modeling for multi-step tasks and some individuals. Furthermore, video prompting differs from video modeling in terms of the viewpoint used in the video clips. Video prompting includes video clips that are filmed from the perspective of the performer completing the task, rather than the perspective of a spectator watching someone else completing the task, a common practice in video modeling. Interestingly, in the research base that has emerged over last few years, video prompting has been used as an antecedent prompt to teach daily living skills, but also as an error correction procedure to promote skill acquisition (Goodson et al., 2007; Grice & Blampied, 1994; Tiong, Blampied, & Le Grice, 1992). Moreover, while some studies have shown that video prompting can be withdrawn following acquisition with no apparent detriment to participants’ performance (e.g., Shipley-Benamou, Lutzker & Taubman, 2002; Sigafoos et al., 2005), Sigafoos et al. (2007) demonstrated that in some cases performance deteriorates when video prompts are removed. That is, video prompting might not always facilitate participants’ independence and could instead create a condition of prompt dependency. In an effort to promote greater independence and reduce prompt dependency, Sigafoos et al. (2007) demonstrated that video clips could be faded by gradually combining video clips of individual steps into larger and longer (multi-step) sequences. Towards this direction, other researches have combined video prompting with prompt fading procedures to teach daily living skills. For example, LeGrice and Blampied (1994) combined a constant time delay (CTD) procedure with video prompting to teach four participants with moderate disabilities to use a computer and a video recorder. Norman et al. (2001) Internet Search Basic Skill / 239 used video modelling and video prompting paired with a CTD procedure to teach three self-help skills to three elementary students with intellectual disabilities in a small group setting. Similarly, Graves, Collins, and Shuster (2005) showed the effectiveness of video prompting with CTD for teaching cooking skills to secondary students with moderate disabilities. Nevertheless, to date, there appears to be no research using video prompting to teach Internet search basic skills to students with intellectual disabilities. Thus, the aim of the current study was to teach students with moderate intellectual disabilities to access a website on the Internet, downloading pictures in order to participate in their inclusive classrooms’ History project, thereby fulfilling at the same time some of their IEP objectives. Specifically, the present study began to evaluate whether multi-step chunks of video clips plus an error correction procedure in which the merged video clips were used for two more times would be successful in teaching a novel task (i.e., an Internet search basic skill) to three students with moderate intellectual disabilities. Sigafoos et al. (2007) showed that participants do not need to view each step individually to perform the skill to criterion. Results of this study showed that it is possible to reduce the number of separate video clips that are used as part of the prompting procedure instead of having to show each step separately making the training procedure less onerous for trainers, since sessions could be quicker with less inter-step disruption. Nevertheless, during the initial intervention phase none of the participants acquired the task with the help of this type of multi-step or chunked video prompting. Therefore, the procedure was modified in an effort to promote skill acquisition. We decided to use a step-by-step video prompting paired with CTD plus a similar error correction procedure as aforementioned in order to help students acquire the multi-step task. We hypothesized that unique characteristics of the three students with moderate intellectual disabilities necessitate the use of video prompting in order to make computer’s interface more understandable. Specifically, the research attempted to answer three questions: (a) Is video prompting effective in teaching Internet search basic skill to primary school students with moderate intellectual disabilities? (b) Will the skill be generalized to a novel trainer, setting, and materials? And (c) will the skill maintained over time?