Teaching Play Skills to Children with Autism through Video Modeling: Small Group Arrangement and Observational Learning Arzu Ozen, Sema Batu, and Binyamin Birkan Anadolu University Abstract: The purpose of the present study was to examine if video modeling was an effective way of teaching sociodramatic play skills to individuals with autism in a small group arrangement. Besides maintenance, observational learning and social validation data were collected. Three 9 year old boys with autism participated in the study. Multiple probe design across behaviors was used to examine the effectiveness of video modeling. Results of the study revealed that participants acquired their own roles via video modeling. They also maintained the skills they learned two weeks after the training sessions were completed. Observational learning data were also very positive with all participants. As a result, it can be said that video modeling was effective in teaching sociodramatic play skills to children with autism. Based on the results of the study, it can be recommended that the study be replicated with writing different scenarios and with children with different kinds of disabilities. Play is one of the most important learning opportunities in every child’s life. For many children, play fills most of their spare time. Individuals with autism, like their typically de- veloping peers, can manage to fill their spare time with some play activities. But it is ob- served that children with autism who have limited social and communication areas have some limitations in learning play skills and playing with peers (Terpstra, Higgins, & Pierce, 2002). Often they will withdraw from social situations due to their lack of appropri- ate skills (Liber, Frea, & Symon, 2008). Some of the reasons effecting the development of playing in children with autism include having limited social relationships, expressive lan- guage skills, and displaying stereotype behav- iors (Hobson, Lee, & Hobson, 2009; Honey, Leekam, Turner, & McConachie, 2007). Usu- ally, systematic procedure needs to be used to teach them these skills (Coyne, Nyberg, & Vandenburg, 1999; D’Ateno, Mangiapanello, & Taylor, 2003; Hine & Wolery, 2006; Leaf & McEachin, 1999; MacDonald, Clark, Garrigan, & Vangala, 2005). Teaching role playing skills is seen as an important area in children with autism for decreasing the effects of these characteristics on children’s role playing. Role playing is also important for children with autism for devel- oping the playing skills repertoire and for pro- viding an opportunity for interacting with oth- ers in their daily environments (D’Ateno et al., 2003; Hine & Wolery, 2006; Ingersoll & Schreiman, 2006; MacDonald, Sacromone, Mansfield, Wiltz, & Ahearn, 2009). In our study, expanding the participants’ skills in so- ciodramatic play was targeted. Sociodramatic play is in-vivo pretend play. In this play type, the child pretends that s/he is a particular character, possibly one that is written in a script for the players (Brown & Murray, 2001; Smith, 2001; Weiss & Harris, 2001). In the literature, there are still research studies being conducted for examining effec- tive and efficient teaching techniques and ev- idence-based practices in the area of teaching different skills such as play skills to children with autism. One of the evidence-based prac- This study was supported by a grant from An- adolu University Research Fund (Project No: 032714). Binyamin Birkan was the principal investi- gator of this research project. Correspondence con- cerning this article should be addressed to Sema Batu, Anadolu Universitesi, Engelliler Arastirma En- stitusu, Eskisehir, TURKEY, 26470. E-mail: esbatu@ anadolu.edu.tr Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 2012, 47(1), 84 –96 © Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities 84 / Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities-March 2012