A review of the article, Effectiveness of Teaching Naming Facial Expression to Children with Autism via Video Modeling

This journal article discusses the effects of teaching students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) naming facial expressions through the use of video modelling. It is important for these students to learn what different emotions mean, how to recognize them, and what may cause them. Students with ASD may have limited understanding of social situations and non-verbal cues in communication.

Inadequacies in social situations can lead to difficulties in understanding or getting along with peers and expressing or understanding feelings. Just as pictures in classrooms can help students with ASD understand schedules, rules, and expectations learning facial expressions can help them interact with peers and teachers and better understand social situations. This also can help lower frustrations and anxiety that lead to further behavioral problems.

Some of the research noted in the article states that babies with normal development start recognizing facial expressions during infancy and develop empathy through this understanding. Children with regular developmental patterns look at the eyes, nose, and mouth during facial recognition, while children with ASD tend to only look at the mouth area. This makes understanding facial expressions more difficult for students with ASD.

Ultimately the study was effective in teaching children with ASD emotional facial expressions through video modeling. It also showed that the skill could be maintained. Most people who participated gave appositive opinion of the study, however some were unsure if it would work for other skill.

I found this interesting because I read another article in a previous module about video modeling. I believe it was teaching chain tasks to students with intellectual disabilities. It seems that many different disorders or disabilities benefit from visual reinforcements and video modeling is a great visual support. This video modeling worked best by providing a situation in which the emotional facial expression occurs, which gives the viewer some context to understand the emotion and connect the facial movements.  This is great for students with ASD, since they struggle with social situations and expressing emotion.

Akmanoglu, N. (2015). Effectiveness of teaching naming facial expression to children with autism via video modeling. Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice, 15(2), 519-537.