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J Autism Dev Disord (2015) 45:28652875

DOI 10.1007/s10803-015-2449-y

ORIGINAL PAPER

Video-Based Intervention in Teaching Fraction Problem-Solving


to Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Gulnoza Yakubova1 Elizabeth M. Hughes1 Erin Hornberger2

Published online: 25 April 2015


Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine the individuals everyday functioning, students with ASD ex-
effectiveness of a point-of-view video modeling intervention perience challenges with executive functioning including
to teach mathematics problem-solving when working on word problem-solving, planning, sequencing, and self-regulation
problems involving subtracting mixed fractions with uncom- which negatively impact students academic performance
mon denominators. Using a multiple-probe across students (e.g., Ozonoff et al. 1991).
design of single-case methodology, three high school students Students with ASD are eligible to receive academic and
with ASD completed the study. All three students demon- functional life skills instruction under the Individuals with
strated greater accuracy in solving fraction word problems and Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA 2004)
maintained accuracy levels at a 1-week follow-up. through high school graduation or age 21. Once a student
completes educational services, he or she has access to fewer
Keywords Video modeling  Problem solving  supports but is still expected to function within the con-
Mathematics  Autism spectrum disorder ventional parameters accepted by society (e.g., Hendricks
and Wehman 2009). Currently, instructional strategies for
students with ASD focus on improving skills related to so-
Introduction cial (e.g., Banda et al. 2010), communication (e.g., Peturs-
dottir and Carr 2011), and behavior skills (e.g., Coyle and
Characteristics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) include Cole 2004), with the majority of the research focusing on
impairments in (a) social communication and interaction and elementary grade levels. Application of academic skills and
(b) repetitive behaviors and restricted activities and interests knowledge are also important for individuals to function
[American Psychiatric Association (APA), 2013]. These within society; however, less research is available on aca-
characteristics provide challenges for individuals with ASD demic instruction for individuals with ASD and within that
in being successful in forming social relations, academics, research base, more studies focused on literacy than on other
independence, and overall quality of life (Schall et al. 2012). content areas (Pennington 2010; Spencer et al. 2014). Re-
Furthermore, characteristics attributed to having a disability search on teaching mathematics to students with ASD is
span the individuals lifetime and permeate various aspects scarce (Spencer et al. 2014) even as the number of jobs and
of the individuals daily life (Hendricks and Wehman 2009). careers that require advanced knowledge and skills in
In addition to the core characteristics of ASD that impact an mathematics is on the rise (Bureau of Labor Statistics, n.d.).

& Gulnoza Yakubova Mathematics Challenges Among Students


yakubovag@duq.edu
with ASD
1
Department of Counseling, Psychology and Special
Education, Duquesne University, G9-C Canevin Hall, National mathematics outcomes for students with dis-
600 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15282, USA abilities are bleak. Only a quarter of students with dis-
2
Watson Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, USA abilities that participated in a 2013 national assessment of

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mathematics achievement scored at or above basic level in Proficiency in fractions requires that students attend to two
mathematics (National Center for Educational Statistics quantities (i.e., numerators and denominators) simultaneously
2013). Many students with ASD have a disability in and recognize their relationship (NCTM 2013). Proficiency in
mathematics (Mayes and Calhoun 2006) or at least struggle fractions requires students to learn new rules and discriminate
with mathematics (Meyer and Minshew 2002; Rourke and when to apply the rules. For example, the additive properties
Strang 1978), and at least 25 % find mathematics more (i.e., addition and subtraction) of fractions typically require
troublesome than vocabulary (Williams et al. 2008). that students find a common denominator prior to solving the
The abstraction of mathematics naturally provides chal- equation; however, this rule does not translate to the multi-
lenges to learning. Geary (2004) proposed three subtypes of plicative properties (i.e., multiplication and division) of frac-
mathematics deficits for students with disabilities in tions. The term fraction itself can conjure different meanings
mathematics, including visuospatial challenges, procedural in different situations. Commonly understood as part of a
challenges, and semantic memory challenges. The linguistic whole (e.g., one half of a candy bar), fractions, which are a
aspect of mathematics may also pose challenges for students ratio of algebraic quantities, may also refer to part of a group
as mathematics vocabulary may have multiple meanings, or (e.g., two-thirds of the students attended the concert), or ratio
meanings that are distinctively different in another context or proportion (e.g., three-fifths of the class were girls). The
(e.g., mean as something that is nasty or malicious versus part of a whole understanding of fractions is also challenged
mean as an average value of a set of quantities). Unlike when students work with mixed numbers (e.g., 4 or 19/4).
traditional texts, mathematic equations are not always read
from the left to the right. Individuals must apply rules asso-
ciated with order of operations (i.e., parentheses and expo- Fractions Interventions for Students with ASD
nents, multiplication and division, addition and subtraction)
or solve equations presented vertically, such as with frac- The educational emphasis on teaching fractions in curricula
tions. The learner is required to attend to multiple values, has increased, as fractions are now understood to be an area
distinguish when to apply which rules and in which order, critical to mathematics proficiency and success in algebra
and rely on mastery of prerequisite skills (e.g., basic multi- (Booth and Newton 2012; NMAP 2008). NCTM (2000,
plication) simultaneously, which may be challenging for 2006) has several standards that emphasize the need to learn
students who demonstrate difficulties with semantic or how to solve equations involving fractions. Mandates require
working memories. For example, subtracting fractions may that students not only have access to content area instruction,
(or may not) require the learner to complete multiple pro- but also make progress toward mastering content standards
cedural steps prior to the actual procedure of subtracting (e.g., No Child Left Behind 2001); however, the quality of
(e.g., find fractions with common denominators, create im- instruction at the secondary level may still be inadequate
proper fractions from mixed fractions). (Fleury et al. 2014). Maccini and Gagnon (2002) reported
that many special education teachers had limited knowledge
Difficulties with Fractions of national mathematics standards and focus instruction
solely on basic mathematics. Limited instructional models
It is widely recognized that learning secondary that currently exist for teachers to teach mathematics to
mathematics requires a robust foundation in basic and students with ASD focus on standards related to basic
prerequisite skills. A strong number sense foundation must numbers and operations or money management (Browder
go beyond just that of whole numbers to include numbers et al. 2012; Spencer et al. 2014). Recent reviews of literature
such as fractions and decimals (Fennell 2007). Knowledge found limited research evidence on teaching mathematics to
of fractions is considered to be the most important of students with ASD (Knight et al. 2013; Spencer et al. 2014).
foundational skills (NMAP 2008) and may predict later Though limited, emerging research suggests that students can
achievements in mathematics (Bailey et al. 2012), as much learn mathematics content that aligns with grade-level stan-
as 5 years later (Siegler et al. 2010). Reasonably, lack of dards while concurrently improving their basic mathematics
knowledge with fractions contributes to being under-pre- skills (Jimenez et al. 2008; Saunders et al. 2013).
pared for other mathematics classes (Sanders et al. 2005).
Fractions tend to be especially difficult for students with
disabilities in mathematics (NMAP 2008; Sanders et al. 2005). Video-based Interventions for Students with ASD
One reason fractions may be difficult is that students may
apply rules of whole numbers erroneously to rational numbers One strategy with a strong research base for teaching stu-
(Ni and Zhou 2005). For example, multiplying two positive dents with ASD is an intervention incorporating video
rational numbers results in a larger product; however, multi- technology. Outside of research on teaching mathematics
plying a number by a fraction may yield a smaller product. to students with ASD, interventions integrating video

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technology have strong research support that span several video-based problem-solving intervention (i.e., point-of-
decades (e.g., Colby 1973; Higgins and Boone 1996; view video modeling and a problem-solving checklist
Panyan 1984; Rayner et al. 2009). Research has shown that derived from the video modeling clip) on the acquisition
incorporating video technology into teaching can be an and maintenance of solving word problems that require
equalizer for students with disabilities and enable students subtraction of mixed fractions among students with ASD.
to engage in learning at an individual pace with opportu- The research questions of the study were: (a) To what
nities for repeated practice (e.g., Higgins and Boone 1996; extent do students with ASD improve the accuracy of
Rayner et al. 2009). The potential of video technology to solving word problems that require subtraction of mixed
improve both students learning and teachers instruction fractions between the baseline and intervention phase using
can be an effective component in improving students video-based problem-solving intervention? And (b) to what
learning and skill acquisition (Rayner et al. 2009). extent do students with ASD maintain skills 1-week fol-
Video-based interventions (i.e., video modeling, point- lowing conclusion of the intervention phase?
of-view video modeling, video prompting, and computer-
based video instruction) are one approach to incorporating
video technology into instruction. Video-based interven- Method
tions have been effective in teaching a wide array of skills,
including social, communication, behavior, play, and self- This study used a single case experimental design. A
help skills to students with ASD in elementary through multiple probe across students design (Horner and Baer
high school grades (e.g., Mason et al. 2012). Further, a 1978) was used to identify the effectiveness of the inter-
report by The National Professional Development Center vention on the acquisition and maintenance of problem-
on ASD found video-based interventions to have strong solving performance when solving fraction word problems.
evidence-base in improving play, motor, adaptive, behav- This design allowed investigators to replicate the effect of
ior, communication, social, joint attention, cognitive, the intervention on the dependent variable between con-
school-readiness, academic, and vocational skills of stu- ditions eliminating carryover effects and demonstrate the
dents with ASD (Plavnick 2013). existence of a functional relationship between the inter-
A specific application of video-based interventions is a vention and outcome variable. To meet standards of single-
point-of-view video modeling. Point-of-view video mod- case experimental design, the study included at least three
eling involves video recording of a target skill with step- attempts at three different time points and replicated across
by-step explanations from the first person perspective three students (Kratochwill et al. 2013).
(Allen et al. 2010). Thus, the video recording shows only Consistent with the design of the study, five baseline
the models hands performing the task and providing the measures were taken, then a point-of-view video modeling
instruction while keeping the main focus on the target clip was made. Intervention measures were then taken
skill/task being explained. When using point-of-view video when participants viewed video modeling clips and solved
modeling, a student views the entire video clip and then problems until each met mastery criterion of the inter-
completes the target task. The effectiveness and efficiency vention phase. Then, 1-week maintenance measures were
of using point-of-view video modeling can help teachers collected to determine the extent to which students retained
individualize instruction for each learner. The use of point- acquired skills. During baseline, intervention, and mainte-
of-view video modeling enables the student to view the nance phases permanent product recording served to
video clip multiple times and at an individual pace until he/ measure students response accuracy on fraction word
she achieves mastery of the task (Allen et al. 2010). While problems (Kennedy 2005). Each student completed the
research examining interventions that incorporate video- equations required to solve the fraction word problems and
based interventions in teaching mathematics to secondary turned in the assessment to the investigators. Then, the
school students with ASD is almost nonexistent, potential investigators recorded the problems as correct and incor-
evidence in teaching other academic content areas and rect accordingly and documented the percent of problems
strong effectiveness of these interventions in teaching non- correct.
academic skills to students with ASD suggests one to When analyzing the data, visual analysis was the pri-
speculate that these interventions could be effective in mary method of data analysis (Kratochwill et al. 2013).
teaching mathematics. Visual analysis is a commonly used data analysis method
The present study extends the use of point-of-view video in single case research designs to determine the existence
modeling to content-based academic skills for high school and magnitude of a functional relationship between an in-
students with ASD by focusing on solving word problems dependent and a dependent variable (Kazdin 2010; Ken-
with fractions in a functional mathematics class. The pur- nedy 2005). When visually analyzing data, Kratochwill
pose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of et al. (2013) recommend a four-step process for

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determining a causal relationship between independent and in internet-based academic curriculum two grade levels
dependent variables. The first step involves examining behind. Kevin, 18 years old, had a diagnosis of ASD and
baseline data for pattern and stability prior to introducing an IQ score of 70 (WISC-IV). He also participated in in-
the intervention. Second, within-phase examination of data ternet-based academic curriculum two grade levels behind.
for the level, trend, and variability should be conducted. At the time of the study, students did not receive in-
Third, the overlap, immediacy of effect, and consistency of struction on solving problems involving mixed fractions.
data between and within-phases should be examined. Fi- Students always used calculators to perform calculations in
nally, to identify the demonstration of an effect at three their mathematics classes. The activities in the study were
different time points with at least three replications, the aimed on teaching students a problem-solving process
collected information should be integrated to ensure a when solving fraction word problems and not on teaching
causal relationship between the intervention and outcome. calculation operations. Calculators assist students to over-
Further, improvement rate difference (IRD), an effect size come challenges with calculation and enable them to work
measuring the difference in improvement rate between two on word problems accurately and efficiently once students
conditions, was calculated (Parker et al. 2009). possess a conceptual understanding of problem-solving
process (Yakubova and Bouck 2014). Therefore, students
Participants were allowed to continue using their calculators during the
study to perform calculation operations when solving
Four male students, Jeff, Brian, Kevin, and John, attending fraction word problems.
an urban secondary school were selected to participate in
the study based on the following criteria: (a) no prior ex- Setting
perience with video modeling instruction in mathematics
problem solving, (b) meeting the ASD diagnostic criteria Students received mathematics instruction based on func-
according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental tional mathematics curriculum below grade level. The
Disorders-5 (DSM-5; APA 2013), (c) demonstrated diffi- functional mathematics class had a special education tea-
culties in mathematics problem solving involving mixed cher and five students. Research sessions occurred in a
fractions according to teachers recommendation, separate classroom with participating students and the re-
(d) demonstrating conceptual understanding of word stories searchers so as to not distract other students in the class.
in problem-solving process according to teachers recom-
mendation based on classroom scores and formative mea- Independent Variable
sures, (e) no vision or hearing impairments, and
(f) willingness to participate in the study. Four students The independent variable of the study was point-of-view
started the study activities and only three students com- video modeling instruction delivered through iPad and
pleted; John was dropped out of the study due to his con- problem-solving checklist representing steps illustrated in
sistent absence. video modeling instruction. The checklist required students
Students received internet-based state approved cur- to make decisions when determining what steps were
riculum and academic services according to grade level and necessary to solve the subtraction problem involving
graduation requirements at an educational center for stu- fractions with unlike denominators (included mixed num-
dents with ASD. Students with ASD whose needs could not bers) and complete the procedures necessary to solve the
be met via intervention and supports delivered in a tradi- equations. Video clip illustrated the process of solving a
tional setting were referred to the center by local school word problem requiring subtraction of mixed fractions with
districts. Students were not administered IQ or any other unlike denominators and a step-by-step narration. The only
assessments at the center; the center relied on information thing that the video showed was a hand of an adult model
provided by local school districts regarding ASD diagnosis writing on a white paper with a black marker. Each student
and assessments. Daily instruction also involved training in used the iPad to independently access the video clip, used
social, communication, organizational, and life skills to headphones, and viewed point-of-view video modeling
prepare students to transition to post-school life. All stu- instruction during each intervention session.
dents participated in consumer-focused mathematics class
in a resource room. Jeff, 17 years old, had a diagnosis of Dependent Variable
ASD based on school records provided to the Educational
Center for ASD. His IQ score 71 (WISC-IV) and par- Dependent variable was the accuracy of problem-solving
ticipated in grade-level internet-based academic curriculum performance on a set of five word problems involving
except in mathematics. Brian, 19 years old, had a diagnosis subtraction of fractions with unlike denominators (includ-
of ASD and an IQ score of 82 (WIAT-II). He participated ing mixed numbers) during each session. The accuracy of

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problem-solving performance was defined as the percent- iPad 2


age of correctly completed subtraction equations involving
mixed fractions with unlike denominators out of five The video clip was uploaded to an iPad 2 and students
questions per session. Each equation was marked as correct independently accessed a point-of-view video modeling
or incorrect. clip during intervention. During each intervention session,
students were asked to turn on the iPad 2, access the video
Materials icon, put on headphones, and watch a video clip.

All students used the same materials throughout the study. Procedure
Prior to beginning the study, students participated in an
initial evaluation session to assess students skill levels and Baseline
identify a target topic. An evaluation probe included one-
and two-digit subtraction and addition fraction word Baseline consisted of five sessions per student and until a
problems with simple common and uncommon de- stable state of responding was achieved. Students did not
nominators and mixed fractions. Students worked on a set receive intervention or assistance during baseline and
of five fraction word problems in one- and two-digit sub- worked on one set of fraction word problems during each
traction and addition with common denominators and a set session. At the beginning of each baseline session, all
of five subtraction word problems with mixed fractions. students received the same instruction: Each of you will
Students answered subtraction word problems with mixed get a worksheet with five word problems featuring mixed
fractions with greater inaccuracy. Based on evaluation re- fraction operations and solve problems using a calculator.
sults and classroom teachers recommendation, problem
solving of subtraction word problems with mixed fractions Intervention
was targeted for the intervention. Thus, the authors de-
veloped word problems involving subtraction of fractions Intervention lasted a maximum of six sessions per student
with unlike denominators (including mixed numbers) and and until each achieved at least 80 % accurate response for
randomly selected five problems for each session. Prob- two consecutive sessions. Students watched point-of-view
lems represented word stories applicable to functional video modeling clip and used problem-solving checklist
skills of everyday life. To keep the language concise within while solving for word fraction problems. Students were
this article, word problems involving subtraction of familiar with accessing video clips on an iPad; therefore,
fractions with unlike denominators, which may include no training was provided on accessing a video clip. During
mixed numbers, will be referred to as simply fraction each session, the trainer asked the students to turn on an
word problems. iPad 2, access a video clip, put on headphones, and watch
the video clip in its entirety. Students were allowed to
Video Modeling Clip rewatch the video clip before starting problem solving or
while problem solving if they needed to. However, all
Video clip was recorded from a first person point-of-view students chose to watch the video clip only once during
and featured an adults hands solving a fraction word each session and use the problem-solving model checklist
problem using a paper and a black marker with step-by- derived from the video clip instead of rewatching the video
step narration of problem solving. The video clip lasted clip. After viewing the video clip, the trainer reviewed the
4 min and 34 s. problem-solving steps explaining how to use the checklist.
Then, each student solved one set of five fraction word
Problem-Solving Checklist problems referring to the checklist if needed. After each
student completed solving fraction word problems, the
Students with ASD exhibit adult prompt-dependency investigators marked the answers as correct or incorrect
which is likely to inhibit independent functioning in adult and recorded the percentage of correct responses.
life (Hume et al. 2009). Thus, a checklist was used to en-
able students to self-prompt steps if they needed assistance Maintenance
during intervention and to remove their dependency on
adult prompting. The checklist included written problem- One week following completion of the intervention phase,
solving steps and model of a sample fraction word problem students solved a set of five fraction word problems using
used in the video clip. During intervention, students had a calculators for three sessions. Students did not use the
hard copy of the checklist and could refer to the checklist video clip and problem-solving checklist during mainte-
while solving for problems after viewing a video clip. nance. The purpose was to examine the extent to which

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students continued to accurately solve fraction word Baseline Intervention Maintenance

problems following the withdrawal of intervention. 100

80

Interobserver Agreement and Procedural Reliability 60

40
To ensure the reliability of the data collected, a second 20 Jeff
trained independent rater randomly selected at least 30 % 0
of each phase and independently checked the percentage 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

of correct problem-solving performance. Interobserver 100

Percentage of problems
agreement (IOA) was calculated by dividing the number of 80
agreements by the number of agreements plus disagree- 60

correct
ments and then multiplying by 100 % (Kennedy 2005). 40
IOA was 100 % for each student per phase. Procedural 20 Brian
reliability was also collected during a minimum of 20 % of
0
the intervention phase to ensure students watched the video 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
clip and had access to problem-solving checklists during 100
intervention. Reliability was calculated by dividing the 80
number of occurrences by the number of occurrences and 60
nonoccurrences and then multiplying by 100 % (Kennedy
40
2005).
20 Kevin
0
Social Validity 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Sessions
Assessing social validity is an integral part of applied re-
search and provides input into the effects of a behavioral Fig. 1 Percentage of fraction word problems correct
intervention on participants, clinicians, teachers, and
family members. Social validity is a measure of the im-
Table 1 The mean percentage of accurate responding per student
portance, effectiveness and practicality of the intervention during each phase
as perceived by respective stakeholders, e.g., students,
Student Baseline Intervention Follow-up
parents, teachers, clinicians (Kennedy 2005). Prior to and
following the intervention phase, students and a classroom Jeff 4 96.67 100
teacher responded to informal social validity questions to Brian 0 90 86.67
offer perspectives on the acceptability, relevance and use- Kevin 0 95 73.34
fulness of the intervention. Social validity questions re-
quired yes/no response and also asked teacher and students
to provide their opinions on why they responded with yes
or no to each question. Pre- and post-intervention social word problem-solving assessments during intervention
validity questions asked on teachers and students opin- over baseline levels and sustained accurate performance
ions on the importance of improving problem solving in through the maintenance phase. Table 1 represents the
math, the likelihood of improving problem solving via mean percentage of accurate responding per student during
instructional video clips, the ease and time efficiency of each phase. IRD scores revealed a strong effectiveness of
using the intervention, and if they would be willing to learn the intervention on students fraction word problem-solv-
other types of problem solving and other topics in ing performance.
mathematics via video-modeling intervention.
Jeff

Results When solving fraction word problems, Jeffs average


baseline performance was 4 % with a slightly increasing
Point-of-view video modeling intervention with problem- trend solving one out of five problems correct during the
solving checklist modeled from the video clip resulted in fifth baseline session. Upon introduction of intervention,
increased students accuracy in performance when solving Jeffs accurate responding immediately increased and
word fraction problems (see Fig. 1). Visual analysis reached a mean of 96.67 % during intervention. This re-
demonstrated that each student improved performance on sulted in mean level change of 92.67 % between baseline

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and intervention. At a 1-week follow-up, Jeff maintained validity interview, the classroom teacher felt it was im-
100 % accuracy on problem-solving. When determining portant for her students to improve problem-solving per-
effect size, IRD score of 1.0 was obtained between baseline formance in mathematics and that her students would
and intervention indicating a strong effectiveness of the benefit from the intervention. At the end of the study, the
intervention with no overlap of data points between two teacher favored the ease of use, time efficiency, and the
conditions. IRD between baseline and maintenance phases impact of the intervention on students problem-solving
also resulted in a score of 1.0 with a strong effect on performance. When asked about the teachers willingness
maintenance of skills. to use the intervention to teach other topics in mathematics,
she felt that Brian and Kevin would benefit more than Jeff.
Brian The teacher felt that Jeff might benefit from continued
instruction with a teacher providing immediate feedback,
Brian improved his accurate responding from an average of correction, or reinforcement in learning mathematics topics
0 % baseline performance to an average of 90 % accuracy in general.
during intervention. Mean level change in Brians accurate
responding was 90 %. Baseline trend was stable, while
immediate increasing trend was observed during interven- Discussion
tion. Brian maintained his problem-solving accuracy with a
mean of 86.67 % at a 1-week follow-up. When determin- The purpose of the current study was to examine the ef-
ing effect size, IRD score was 1.0 indicating strong inter- fectiveness of teaching high school students with ASD how
vention effectiveness with no overlapping data points to solve fraction word problems involving subtraction of
between each comparing condition: baseline and inter- mixed fractions with unlike denominators via point-of-
vention and baseline and maintenance. view video modeling intervention and problem-solving
checklist modeled from the video clip. Visual analysis of
Kevin data indicated immediate improvement of students per-
formance reaching 90 % accuracy or greater during the
Kevin improved his problem-solving accuracy from a intervention phase. The findings suggest the effectiveness
mean of 0 % during baseline to a mean of 95 % during of the intervention in increasing problem-solving accuracy
intervention. Upon introduction of intervention, he imme- and skill maintenance of high school students with ASD.
diately improved his accurate responding with a mean level The ease of the implementation of the intervention via
change of 95 % between baseline and intervention. At a portable electronic devices and its efficiency further add to
1-week follow-up, Kevin maintained 73.34 % accuracy the practicality of the intervention.
when solving fraction word problems with fractions with Many mathematics interventions focus on students with
unlike denominators. Effect size calculations indicated a learning disabilities, as evident by meta-analyses available
strong effectiveness of the intervention with an IRD score on the subject (e.g., Gersten et al. 2009); while consider-
of 1.0 and no overlapping data points between baseline and ably less research has been published on mathematics in-
intervention and baseline and maintenance phases. terventions for students with ASD. As this area in ASD
research is emerging, educators must implement indi-
Social Validity vidualized instruction for students with varying needs. This
can pose a challenge for educators who need to meet the
During initial social validity interview, all three students varying needs of students with ASD in heterogeneous
responded positively to the importance of improving classrooms. Students in this study received a video-based
mathematics skills and potential of learning via use of in- intervention targeted to meet their academic needs. Stu-
structional video clips. At the end of the study, all three dents demonstrated improved accuracy in their responses
students felt they learned problem-solving via instructional immediately after receiving the intervention. The teacher
video clips easily. Brian and Kevin indicated that it was recognized the positive impact of the intervention on stu-
easy to use the intervention and easier to learn via video dent performance, but also indicated that the intervention
than live instruction. Jeff expressed that while he liked was easy to implement and an efficient use of instructional
learning through instructional video clips, he did not like time. The findings suggest that interventions via point-of-
that he had to watch the same instructional video clip view video modeling may allow teachers to provide in-
during each intervention session. When asked if they would structional supports tailored to the needs of students.
be willing to learn other mathematics topics via instruc- Rather than providing one-size fits all instruction and then
tional video clips, Jeff said he might and Brian and Kevin assessing student performance, point-of-view video mod-
responded positively. During pre-intervention social eling intervention allows educators to provide support for

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each learner at an individual level. Each time students have ineffective practices or practices without the evidence of
access to the same sequence and language within the in- effectiveness (Gresham et al. 1999; Simpson 2004). In an
structional video, providing consistency across views. effort to address the use of controversial interventions,
Educators can assign instructional video clips for students research on determining effective instructional practices
to watch and re-watch as needed and then help students has increased over the years with the majority of research
master the content by working one-on-one with students focused on young children with ASD (e.g., Volkmar et al.
who still struggle following watching video clips. 2014). The point-of-view video modeling intervention de-
The majority of research on teaching academic skills to scribed provided an effective intervention for secondary
students with ASD focus on literacy and limited research students, uniquely differing it from previous research to
exists on instructional strategies to teach mathematics to teach mathematics to students with ASD, which focused on
students with ASD (Spencer et al. 2014). Mathematics elementary grade levels (e.g., Flores et al. 2014; Spencer
research that is available primarily address basic skills for et al. 2014).
elementary school students, such as TouchMath, self- Video-based interventions have strong research support
monitoring, and schema-based strategy instruction (Spen- as an evidence-based practice, but have been overlooked in
cer et al. 2014). While certain instructional elements are mathematics research for students with ASD. The findings
consistent across interventions (e.g., explicit instruction), of this study extend the use of video-based interventions
the point of view video-modeling intervention combined beyond literacy and non-academic skills (Knight et al.
elements that have empirical support, such as explicit in- 2013; Pennington 2010; Spencer et al. 2014) and provide
struction, use of checklists, and task analysis, and tech- early evidence on the effectiveness of teaching
nology, to provide an efficient, effective, portable, and mathematics to high school students with ASD using point-
repeatable academic intervention for students. of-view video modeling. The value of providing visual
Further, improving mathematics achievement of stu- supports may explain the improved performance of stu-
dents with ASD has become increasingly important as dents given the visual preferences of students with ASD
current legislations emphasize the need for all students, (Bellini and Akullian 2007). Further, providing instruction
including those with ASD, to have access to general cur- in a video-based format via hand-held electronic tech-
riculum and grade-level standards (IDEIA 2004), which nology likely contributed to students learning by exposing
consequently requires a strong foundation of prerequisite students to relevant information visually, reducing extra
skills. One way this research extends previous research is stimuli and making the instructional video clips from the
that it addresses mathematics skills beyond basic first person perspective in a point-of-view video modeling
mathematics skills for students with ASD. Students in the intervention (Nikopoulos et al. 2009; Allen et al. 2010).
current research were still receiving instruction below The increased accuracy in students performance con-
grade level but benefitted from intervention aimed to de- tinued throughout the maintenance condition. The impor-
velop prerequisite and more advanced skills and were tance of this is twofold; first, it documented the students
taught to solve multi-step equations involving mixed- success solving fractions equations after the scaffolds
fractions with unlike denominators, which aligns with the provided by the intervention had been removed; second, it
NMAP (2008) recommendations to develop competency in demonstrated that students maintained the skills, which is
fractions as a prerequisite skill to higher mathematics. The pivotal in the progressive nature of mathematics, where
students who participated in the study demonstrated im- success with future tasks require knowledge, skill, and
mediate improvement after the intervention and maintained accurate application of previously learned information.
proficiency with learned material after the intervention had Maintaining mathematics skills will likely benefit students
been removed. These findings are consistent with prior in in future situations where the student has to indepen-
research on mathematics interventions that increased skill dently problem solve with situations involving fractions,
proficiency for students with ASD (e.g., Jimenez et al. such as mathematics courses, careers, or independent
2008; Saunders et al. 2013) and attempt to develop skills living.
necessary for students to have access to grade-level stan- During intervention, all students had access to a
dards, as many students with ASD experience limited ac- checklist of problem-solving steps using a sample fraction
cess to academic content (Newman 2007). word problem derived from the instructional video clip.
The findings of the study also add to research on in- Though students had an option of both re-watching the
structional strategies for secondary school students with video clip and using the checklist to refer to the next step in
ASD. The demands for accountability in education require problem-solving operations, all students chose to use a
the educators to use interventions based on research evi- checklist rather than re-watching the video clip. When
dence (National Research Council 2001). Particularly, the using a checklist to self-prompt problem-solving steps,
field of ASD has had a longstanding tradition of using differences among students existed. Jeff always referred to

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J Autism Dev Disord (2015) 45:28652875 2873

checklist when solving problems during intervention. Brian visual-spatial (Raghubar et al. 2009) which may have re-
and Kevin referred to checklist only during the first session sulted from using the calculator. The students used calcu-
of intervention and independently faded reliance on self- lators as a standard accommodation per classroom practice
prompting checklist during further intervention sessions. and the use of the calculators was not a focus for this study.
When Jeff started maintenance phase, he expressed the Thus, students solved all problems using calculators and
need for a checklist to solve problems and was hesitant to some would put the outcome value of each step calculated
try solving the problems without using the checklist. Yet, rather than handwriting each step on the worksheet. The
once the investigators noted that he would not have the students were familiar with using the calculators; however,
checklist and would need to try his best to solve the it is possible that the students may have occasionally
problems, he solved problems with 100 % accuracy during pressed the wrong button on the calculator resulting in an
the maintenance phase. This suggests that while some incorrect output for the answer. An incorrect output for any
students independently fade self-prompting checklists, of the simple equations within the multi-step process would
some students might need explicit training on fading self- have resulted in an incorrect final answer.
prompting checklists to increase confidence and autonomy Findings from this study indicate that students main-
in task completion. tained the skills 1 week after the completion of the inter-
vention phase. Future research is necessary to assess
Limitations and Recommendations for Future maintenance at longer intervals. Maintenance is especially
Research important as skills in mathematics build from mastery of
previous skills. Mastery of prerequisite skills allows stu-
The limitations highlight the need for future research in this dents to focus on more complex problems and general-
underdeveloped area of mathematics achievement for high ization of skills, as recommended by NMAP (2008).
school students with ASD. While best practices in single-
case experimental methodology suggest the replication of
effect across three participants (Kratochwill et al. 2013), Conclusion
future research with large sample sizes is necessary to
enhance the generalization of findings. Further research is Findings from this study contribute to emerging trends
needed to continue examining additional ways on the use supporting video-based interventions to teach students with
of video-based interventions to enhance both procedural ASD and expand to teaching mathematics skills. Whether
and conceptual mathematics knowledge for students with video-based interventions can be considered to be evi-
ASD. Prior to this intervention, the students had a basic dence-based practices in academic areas, particularly, in
conceptual understanding of how to solve word problems mathematics is yet to be seen. More research in this area is
and were able to determine whether to add, subtract, di- needed to address the academic needs of students with
vide, or multiply to solve the problem; however, they ASD in efforts to improve the likely trajectory of student
demonstrated challenges to complete the procedures nec- outcomes. Findings from this study are promising, that with
essary to solve the multi-step equations. Consequently, the the right instruction and academic supports, students with
intervention targeted student needs by explaining the pro- ASD can successfully learn and maintain complex
cedures to solve the complex equations within the context mathematics problem-solving skills and improve academic
of word problems. This compliments the NMAP (2008) outcomes.
emphasis to develop both conceptual and procedural
knowledge in mathematics. Considering varying Acknowledgment The authors received no financial support for the
research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
mathematics skills of students with ASD, we recommend
that video interventions be specially designed for the
specific learning needs of the students and caution that
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