AUTISM THERAPY
3. Instruct your child to take one bite of his/
her food and place it on the plate in front
of him/her. Make sure the child takes a rea-
sonably sized bite and chews thoroughly
before swallowing. It may take a few tries
to get this right, depending on your child’s
usual eating habits. Video-record him/her
doing this (but don’t record your instruc-
tions) with your smartphone or tablet.
4. Tell your child to take a sip of his/her drink
and place it down in front of him/her. Vid-
eo-record this, but do not record your in-
struction.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 a few times.
6. Edit the video to show your child taking
a bite of food, placing it down, chewing,
swallowing, and then taking a sip of a drink.
Show this sequence several times on the fi-
nal video. The final pace shown on the vid-
eo should be the pace at which you want
your child to now eat. The editing can be
completed using free editing software such
as iMovie or KineMaster.
7. Start and end the video with an image of
your child smiling or looking happy.
8. At the beginning of the video, say some-
thing like, “This is Patrick eating slowly and
carefully.”
9. End the video by saying something like,
“Fantastic job eating slowly and carefully,
Patrick!”
10. Show the final video to your child every day
or two and compliment him/her when the
child eats slowly and carefully (“Great job
eating slowly and carefully, Patrick”).
11. Once your child is consistently eating slowly
and carefully, you can show the video once
or twice per week for two weeks, then once
per week, and then stop showing it altogeth-
er. If your child starts to gobble food again in
the future, you can start showing the video
every day or two again for a few weeks.
Remember, you should adapt these instructions to
adjust to your child’s specific challenges. You can
also tell your child’s school system that you want
them to use video self-modeling to teach your child
in school. Every professional working with your child
can use video self-modeling to help your child reach
his/her goals.
VSM is a very effective tool that positively shows your
child’s brain exactly what to do. In the next article in
this series, we will focus on using VSM to teach your
child to use self-help skills at home, like brushing his/
her teeth and getting dressed. Until then, happy re-
cording!
Melissa M. Root, PhD, is president and founder of
Root Success Solutions TM LLC and a certified school
psychologist in Connecticut. Dr. Root is a coauthor
of Picture Perfect: Video Self-Modeling for Behav-
ior Change, available from Pacific Northwest Pub-
lishing and through her website. Dr. Root offers a
professional certificate in video self-modeling and
trains families and professionals on how to use the
technique. She presents internationally on video
self-modeling as an effective tool for positive be-
havior change.
Website: www.rootsuccess.com
Email: [email protected]
Autism Parenting Magazine | Issue 74 |
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