Effectiveness of Video Modeling in Teaching Employment Skills to Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Employment is a critical and challenging area for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (iwASD), and thus, additional research in this area is warranted. In this single-case research design, we taught six employment skills to three iwASD (ages 15-17) using video modeling. We assessed the generalization of the skills after 1, 5, and 12 weeks. In addition, we also examined whether participants acquired non-target information about each skill. Finally, we collected social validity data from the participants and their parents after the completion of the study. The findings showed that the participants acquired, generalized, and maintained the target skills. They also acquired non-target information at varying levels of accuracy. Further, the participants and their parents reported high satisfaction with the procedures. This study showed that video modeling can be an effective tool for teaching sector-based multi-step employment skills to individuals with autism, with generalization outside of the clinical setting.