It would be time prohibitive to treat each problem behavior that occurs during the sequence as unique and then construct a separate video for all of them. This would also cause a loss of context and continuity. Instead, it usually makes the most sense to make one video showing the child using appropriate behavior from start to finish of the sequence. Alternately, you may want to make two videos if two distinct problem behaviors occur during a sequence. For instance, the child may use tantrums and aggression at certain points in her transition from class to class, but also at other times during the school day. In this case, I would look for all the triggers for the tantrums (given that falling to the floor occurs in other situations) and put these scenes in one movie (with replacement behaviors). Likewise, I would identify triggers for aggression and make these scenes in another movie with the child acting appropriately. But, do keep in mind that VSM often has generalized effects across behaviors, so the first video may lead to changes across behaviors. As you evaluate results, make sure to notice in areas other than the one targeted on the video.

Step 3: Identify Replacement Behavior(s)
Once you have pinpointed the behavior(s) you want to change and know when it occurs, you choose a more appropriate behavior to teach the person instead. For example, if a child typically pushes other kids out of the way to be first in line, you might decide to make a visual schedule to show all the class who gets to be line leader that day. You might then teach the child with autism to look at that schedule and see if her picture is on the line leader schedule that day. Or at home, if your child bites her brother when she wants him to give her the TV remote, you might have her tap him on the shoulder or hand him a card with a picture of the remote instead.

The key is to identify a behavior that will enable the person to get her needs met just as quickly and efficiently as the problem behavior does. In some cases, it may help to have an FBA done to help you identify an appropriate replacement behavior.

Step 4: Make a Storyboard
Once you have chosen a behavior or behaviors to teach, you map out what scenes you will film for your video. I do this by sketching out a storyboard.

Task analysis is particularly important in self-modeling because the individual steps be treated like scenes in a movie. Thus, you can take the six steps involved in transitioning to a new a new class listed above and include them in a storyboard that is an illustrated representation of the scenes in the movie. As you can see in the illustration of the Dinner Time Storyboard below, you do not need to be an artist to make a storyboard. You can create storyboard using stick figures. If possible, have the child participate in this process by helping to define the scenes and creating the drawings that these will represent on the storyboard.

When you are making the storyboard, you can decide whether the video should have a script. Any script can be placed in balloons similar to those in a comic strip.

Scripts can be an important component of self-modeling videos because labeling or naming the behaviors or steps in sequential process can help the viewer to focus on the important elements. Typically, self-modeling videos begin by labeling the behavior. For example, I have used something similar to the following to lead off the videos I produced: “Here’s Alicia! Let’s listen to her talking very nicely”; “I don’t have to get mad: starring Ian”; “Let’s watch Scott eat fast so he can get to play”; “Watch as Jamal talks with his friends and teachers." Putting these statements at the very beginning of the video helps children focus on the salient feature: the behavior you want to target.

Other script elements can be written into balloons in subsequent frames of the storyboard. The script can include actual lines that will be spoken while you are filming the role-playing activity, or it can be lines of a monologue for the child or another narrator that can be inserted before or after a role-playing scene. As an illustration of the latter use of the script, here is how I have used monologue in movies we have done for tantrums: Following a scene in which the child has acted out the appropriate response to a situation that would typically result in a tantrum, we film the child commenting on her own correct behavior (e.g., “If John jumps line, I will ask him to go back. If he doesn’t, I will tell the teacher. Getting mad won’t help”).

Adult narration should be kept to a minimum within the movie. It has been my experience that too many scene cuts to adults and even to peers can serve as a distraction. Remember, the child is the star in this project.

This planning process is somewhat different if you want to eliminate a behavior. First, when focusing on eliminating a behavior, you need to identify what triggers it. (This may require you to do a functional behavior analysis, if you haven’t already.) For example, you need to identify events that trigger a child’s tantrums or that cause your child to bite her brother or that lead to her flopping on the floor and refusing to move. Each triggering event can then become a scene in the movie and thus be depicted on a storyboard. (The process of observing and recording behavior is addressed in more detail in Chapter 4.)

In this case you certainly don’t want to show negative behavior; rather you want to define a behavior that would be a socially appropriate substitute. To continue the tantrum example, you might decide to show the child being calm when she is not called on in class, asking line jumpers to move back or informing teacher of the transgression, or complying with requests from teachers or parents.

In the particular situation illustrated on the storyboard below, two third-grade students with mild autism were having trouble controlling their tempers in an inclusive class. After a period of observation, four triggers for their tantrums were identified. These included not being called on when they knew an answer, being corrected for errors in academic work (e.g., missing spelling words or math problems on homework or quizzes), other children jumping ahead of them in line, and being asked to clean up before moving to another activity. We then chose a behavior to replace each inappropriate behavior and sketched a scene on the storyboard the triggering behavior with an appropriate reaction. (Replacement behaviors are best decided on by a team that includes the teacher, the parents, and the child, whenever possible.) for line jumping, we used the classroom rules of first asking the child to move back, and, if this didn’t work, politely telling the teacher about the situation.

In this case, the children who would be viewing the videos participated in coming up with the dialogue and discussing alternative ways to react to the situation. If they had not been able to devise their own dialogue, we would have either written simple dialogue (even a single word) that the children were able to say, or we would have had the children communicate nonverbally with the line jumper, such as with a picture symbol. (Interestingly, although the children with autism very much enjoyed role-playing and filming this scenario, the process of filming had no effect on their behavior. However, the day after watching the video, their tantrums miraculously vanished.)

Step 5: Figuring Out How to Get It All on Video
Once you’ve planned out what you want the video to show, you have to figure out how to get your actor(s) to perform as needed.

This will depend somewhat on the method you will be using to edit the film. You will have a lot more leeway in how you film if you are using video editing software on the computer because your ability to do more intricate editing will be enhanced. Cutting and cropping the video can be done frame by frame, so a missed line or burp can be easily removed. If you are using the VCR method, editing is not so exact. It is much easier if you film until you get the scene right and limit the amount of cutting as much as possible.

The two methods generally used to get children or adults to perform on a VSD video are:

1. role playing, and
2. imitation

Role Playing
This method is appropriate for children who can follow directions and who like to perform--to be “hams.” It can be a lot of fun for children when they see the filming as a game. Role playing is the same as acting in a play or class production. More on role playing is found below in the filming section.

Imitation
Some behaviors don’t fit well into a role-playing scenario or are more easily obtained through imitation. This is especially true of language production. In the role-playing discussed above, we fed our stars the scripts they were to say. That is basically what is done in imitation I say (or do) – you say (or do). In this situation, you sit across from the child and the camera is centered directly on her. Usually, all evidence of prompting will be eliminated in the editing process unless the adult or peer prompt is desired in the video (e.g., you are trying to show how to respond to questions). Even if the child is particularly unresponsive, over time you should be able to collect examples of the behavior you want if you are careful to select a skill that is within the child’s abilities.