Effectiveness of video animation based teaching procedure to teach help-seeking response when lost to children with ASD

In this study, the effectiveness of the video animation-based teaching process, which is presented in social environments and includes the teaching least to most promting on the acquisition, maintenance and generalization of the help seking response when lost to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was examined. In addition, the opinions of teachers working with children with ASD and the families of participating children were evaluated. The implementation was carried out at VEGA Outlet Mall in city center of Eskisehir. Three children aged between five and siz years old with a diagnosis of ASD and their mothers participated in the study. In the research, the multiple-probe design, which is one of the single-subject research methods, was the main method and, the features of the adaptive alternating treatment model were added to this model for the alternating of the dependent variables. The main dependent variable of the intervention is help seeking when lost. The ability to ask for help using a smartwatch and an identification card when they are lost was identified as sub-dependent variables and taught alternately. The findings of the study showed that the video animation-based teaching process was effective in enabiling children to acquire the skills to help seeking by using smart watches and identification cards and generalizing the skills to different settings and people. In addition, it was observed that the children maintaned the acquired skills 30, 75 and 135 days after the end of the intervention. According to the findings obtained from the social validity data, special education teachers and families expressed positive opinions about ask for help seeking when lost and the intervention.