Using Videotape Feedback to Improve the Social Skills of Children with Moderate Cognitive Challenges

George D. Falk & Faithe C. Daniels

Above: George Falk uses videotape feedback with a student.

A school administrator and an elementary teacher for the Moose Jaw Public School Division investigate an alternative strategy for improving the social skills of students with moderate cognitive challenges.

The study assesses the effects of an intervention consisting of self-evaluation via videotape feedback procedures on the number per hour of inappropriate and appropriate social behaviours of children with moderate cognitive challenges.

The researchers note that videotape feedback procedures have shown to be effective in other circumstances, and in this study, they were assessing the efficacy of the procedures with children with moderate cognitive challenges. Related objectives included assessing how durable any gains would be once the procedures stopped, and whether observers naive to the purposes of the study would judge the students' behaviours to be improved. The study also assessed the likelihood that teachers would use the procedures outside of an experimental setting.

The study took place in a public elementary school with students from 8 to 11 years old. Students were in a special elementary life skills classroom with some integration in age appropriate regular education classrooms.

The video feedback and activity session occurred in the special education classroom at a table. Appropriate and inappropriate behaviours were counted at specific times. The report describes the design in detail, including how data were observed and analyzed, as well as the methods that were used to check validity of the conceptualizations and measurements.

The main independent variable was the presence of videotape based self-evaluation activities by students. The students were videotaped for a period of time prior to the self-evaluation procedures. Self-evaluation procedures were introduced, then withdrawn, and reintroduced. Finally the procedures were gradually withdrawn.

The main dependent variables were the rate of inappropriate social behaviours and the rate of appropriate social behaviours. The data were collected by two data collectors who were trained in the observation and analysis of the behaviour under study. Derogatory, demanding, excessively loud or inappropriate statements or gestures were considered as inappropriate social behaviours. Nosepicking, sneezing or coughing without covering the mouth, touching private areas of the body and picking scabs were also recorded as inappropriate. Any verbal or nonverbal behaviour which would be acceptable in social settings such as in a school or community was considered an appropriate social behaviour. Validating, helping or neutral statements and gestures were considered appropriate interactions.

The introduction of the self-evaluation via videotape feedback procedures resulted in an immediate drop in the number per hour of inappropriate social behaviours for each student. A withdrawal of the self-evaluation procedures resulted in a return to pre-procedure levels for each one. The reintroduction of the self-evaluation procedures produced the same effect as the first time: a reduction in inappropriate behaviours.

Individuals who were naive to the purpose of the study also rated the participants as having more social behavioural challenges in the pre-intervention videotape segments than in those following the intervention.

Anecdotal evidence from the teacher's notes illustrate the changes being observed:

Robbie's referral behaviours included anger management challenges, cheating in games with peers and refusing to acknowledge his own inappropriate actions. Interestingly, while Robbie's inappropriate social behaviours decreased during self-evaluation, he repeatedly refused to admit to the behaviours while viewing the videotapes until the last few sessions. For example, many time the videotapes would be repeatedly rewound so he could see himself hitting a peer, yet he would refuse to admit that he hit the peer. Near the end of the study he began to admit to his inappropriate behaviours...

The teacher involved in this study rated the procedures easy to learn and implement. She thought they took a reasonable amount of time to implement and were highly effective in improving the social behaviours of her students, not only during the experimental session but throughout the day.

The researchers pointed to several limitations of the study. "The results of the study also show that unlike similar research... elsewhere, the procedures were not effective in increasing their rate of appropriate social behaviours." They pointed out that unless children substitute appropriate behaviours that serve the same function as the inappropriate one, gains will not last. They also discussed methodological issues relating to the possible effects of the videotaping itself, and the self-selection effect of the teacher who volunteered for the study. Finally, they cautioned that one must be careful not to simplify the solution for children with cognitive challenges.

Many of the children involved in the study may have other more pressing issues in their lives which might need to be addressed first or concurrently if meaningful behavioural gains are to be seen in all settings.

Conclusions

The researchers summarized the results of this study as showing that self-evaluation via videotape feedback procedures was effective when administered in a group of participants with moderate cognitive challenges.

Specifically the results of this study showed that the procedures were:

• effective in consistently reducing the rate of inappropriate social behaviours for the children (regardless of whether administered individually or in a group setting);
• durable in the absence of daily exposure;
• viewed as socially significant by individuals naive to the purposes of the study, who judged the student's behaviour to be improved following the administration of the procedures; and
• viewed as well worth using by teachers who had students requiring social skills interventions.

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