Video modeling is used in teaching students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
Spriggs, Gast, & Knight (2016) explains on the effects of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) on the students' ability to socially interact with others, communicate with others, and pick interests and hobbies just like the other students in their classes. The signs and symptoms of ASD in children can be seen as early as they are three years of age. It is argued that video modeling such as in the use of computer games would be vital to teaching the students with ASD on their appropriate leisure and recreation based on their age. While the use of video games has often been attributed to the adverse effects on the children, it was worthwhile to test the video modeling on the students suffering from ASD. Therefore, a study was conducted to evaluate the observational learning and the video modeling in teaching students with ASD.
The research used a total of 4 participants (Spriggs, Gast, & Knight, 2016). The participants were from the elementary school enrolled in a special education class. The four students were randomly trained to gauge whether they were eligible for the participation in the research. All the four students were eligible, and their parents consented to their inclusivity in the study conducted. The four children's ages ranged from 8 to 11. They were from different racial backgrounds (Spriggs, Gast, & Knight, 2016). The four children were enclosed in a special self-contained classroom where they would access video contents. The students were also exposed to video modeling which would lead to their independence in obtaining video games. The videos were recorded with a hand-held digital recorder.
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Data were collected using the trial-by-trial method where every step in the task analysis was observed. The adults were only involved in giving the necessary directions to the students such as playing the game or watching a video (Spriggs, Gast, & Knight, 2016). The correct scores involved the right execution of the instruction within 10 seconds. Video modeling was based on the one-student-one-activity model. After the analysis of the data collected from the four participants suffering from ASD, it was found out that video modeling increased the children's ability to play the video games independently. The act of observational learning was also observed in a few steps of data collection from the students. Video modeling preceded by observation learning was useful in teaching the students suffering from ASD their age-appropriate leisure activities (Spriggs, Gast, & Knight, 2016).
Computerized cognitive training improves cognitive performance in older adults
The attenuation of the decline of the cognitive performance among the people advanced in age all over the world is a familiar battle. Naturally, cognitive performance in human beings weakens with age. There is light at the end of the tunnel as far as cognitive performance improvement in older adults is concerned. The advent of technology is fundamental to the methods of boosting their performance. Thanks to the rapid advancement of technology across the world, there has been the development of computerized cognitive training (CCT). CCT has raised various points of view with the proponents stating that it is proven to reduce the cognitive decline among older adults. The opponents have noted that cognitive function in human beings cannot be affected by technological influences. To gauge the effectiveness of CCT in cognitive improvement among older adults, research was conducted (Lampit, Hallock, & Valenzuela, 2014).
Various databases were used as the data collection sources. Some of the databases were PsychINFO, Embase, and Medline (Lampit, Hallock, & Valenzuela, 2014). The database was searched for articles up to July 9, 2014, for eligible items relevant to the study. More eligibility came from the investigation of the effects of more than four hours of exposure to CCTs on older adults devoid of dementia and other cognitive impairments. A total of 52 studies were eligible for the research. A total of 4885 participants qualified for the study. The mean age of the participants was around 60 (Lampit, Hallock, & Valenzuela, 2014). They were compared based on the effects of the exposure to video games on personal computers, gaming consoles, as well as mobile phones and the control condition, whether passive or active.
From the research, very few implications were found in the cognitive aspects of attention and the executive functions. Analyses of the study also revealed that group-based cognitive training was more effective compared to individual instruction. Also, it was found out that fewer than three training sessions weekly was comparatively more efficient among the respondents than more than thrice a week. The analysis of the data collected revealed zero impacts of the training based on the working memory. CCT training less than half an hour had weak evidence of cognitive improvement among the older adults. Most importantly, the CCT training would only work well with healthy adults and not the ones having cognitive impairment conditions. Conclusively, CCTs are an effective way of reducing cognitive performance decline. All the same, relevant designs of the training, supervision, less than thrice a week of practice, and group training were found to be useful in CCT among the healthy older adults (Lampit, Hallock, & Valenzuela, 2014).
Internet gaming disorder (IGD) among adolescents as a result of excessive playing of video games
Video games have been known to bring about benefits to cognitive performance to the elderly, according to Lampit, Hallock, & Valenzuela (2014) and to the teaching of children suffering from ASD, as Spriggs, Gast, & Knight (2016) explains. Müller et al. (2014) provide a counter-argument by describing the harmful effects of video gaming among the adolescents and especially in Europe. Video games have been associated with the impairment of the functionality of the brain among the young people. In addition to the massive time wastage associated with the addiction to the computer and video games, societies in the various parts of the world have been concerned on the degradation of morals among the adolescents associated with excessive video games' exposure.
The research conducted was targeted at investigating the socio-demographic predictors, psychopathological correlates, and the prevalence of IGD. A total of 12938 adolescents from 7 different European countries were involved in the research (Müller et al., 2014). The countries were Germany, Poland, Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Iceland, and Greece. The adolescents were between 14 and 17 years of age (Müller et al., 2014). Of the 12938 adolescents, 1.6% of them met the full criteria for internet gaming disorders while 5.1% of them were at risk for qualifying for the IGD criteria for up to 4 units. The prevalence of IGD varied differently across the different European countries that participated in the research. The clustered sampling method based the study design in the analysis of the data collected in the study. Greece recorded the highest percentage of the IGD prevalence at 2.5% while Spain recorded the least at 0.6 %( Müller et al., 2014).
A total of 60.5% of the respondents confirmed playing video games regularly. The prevalence of IGD was recorded higher in boys at 84.7% in boys and 42.8% in girls. More boys in Europe were affected by the prevalence of IGD than girls. Most of the adolescents who reported excessive playing of online games reported having come from broken homes. Therefore, the increased incidence of IGD was linked to reduced parenting issues across Europe. In AICA-S-Gaming, shooter games were mostly associated with increased levels of IGD among the adolescents. IGD was associated with increased symptoms of psychosocial disorders as well as psychopathological conditions. Adolescents suffering from IGD had low levels of recreation, and poor grades at school (Müller et al., 2014).
Continued exposure to excessive video games may lead to violence among the young people
Online computer games are of different types and contexts. Some of the computer games may induce violence among the players due to their nature. For instance, the shooting games may influence the young people to pioneer violence for example in their schools among their peers owing to the tricks of fighting they may have learned from the games. Due to the violence brought about by the media and the games, a rating system has come up. The rating systems have aimed at educating the parents on the management and control of the kinds of games and media to which their children are exposed (Becker-Olsen & Norberg, 2010).
The research was conducted to access the effectiveness of the rating system in reducing the violence among the young people inspired by media and games. A total of 160 participants took part in the study. The respondents were divided into four groups. The groups included college, middle school, high school, and the parents of children over 10 years of age. The decisions were based on age. All the respondents were informed that they were to take part in a rating survey. The participants were asked to fill out a survey and watch one of the four most known video games promotional clips. The clips were to be between 10 and 15 seconds. The four games were chosen to represent the most violent to the least extreme scenarios (Becker-Olsen & Norberg, 2010).
In the other section, the respondents were tested on the familiarity with the rating system. They were asked to rate the four games according to their violence levels. Their ratings originated from their thinking. Most students in middle school were reported to have played the games more than twelve times a week. Most middle school male respondents believed that their parents should have a limited role in selecting what they are exposed to regarding media and games. The parents felt that they should have a role in the selection of the high school students, more than the younger children. Students of all ages had more knowledge on the games and the rating system more than the parents. The research indicated that the efficiency of the rating system on controlling the media exposed to the young children is reduced due to the systems leniency (Becker-Olsen & Norberg, 2010).
References
Becker-Olsen, K. L., & Norberg, P. A. (2010). Caution, Animated Violence. Journal of Advertising , 39 (4), 83-94.
Lampit, A., Hallock, H., & Valenzuela, M. (2014). Computerized Cognitive Training in Cognitively Healthy Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Effect Modifiers. PLoS Medicine , 11 (11), e1001756.
Müller, K. W., Janikian, M., Dreier, M., Wölfling, K., Beutel, M. E., Tzavara, C., … Tsitsika, A. (2014). Regular gaming behavior and internet gaming disorder in European adolescents: results from a cross-national representative survey of prevalence, predictors, and psychopathological correlates. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry , 24 (5), 565-574.
Spriggs, A. D., Gast, D. L., & Knight, V. F. (2016). Video Modeling and Observational Learning to Teach Gaming Access to Students with ASD. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders , 46 (9), 2845-2858.
