Abstract

Background: A twelve-year-old boy diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders participated in the study.

Methods: His pretend play skills and social interaction levels were measured pre intervention, post intervention, and at a follow up stage. The participant viewed a videotaped scenario of an adult model playing with a toy set and he was asked to play with the same toys.

Results: The child performance increased in scripted actions and in social interaction during the video modeling phase compared to baseline levels. At the follow up session, scripted pretend play skills and social interaction were for the short-term maintained but generalizations were limited. However, longterm maintenance was not measured. Post intervention measures indicated that the intervention was implemented accurately and was considered valuable.

Conclusions: This study examined the effectiveness of teaching pretend play skills in a child with autism through video modelling. Pretend play skills were improved, lead to an increase in social interaction.

Keywords: Autism, Video modeling, Pretend play, Child