Neurodiversity and Video Learning: A Perfect Match

If you’re involved in education, you may have noticed the term “neurodiversity” popping up in education news, on teacher Twitter, and maybe even in your latest PD session.

That’s why we wanted to speak with an expert about why video learning is so effective with neurodiverse students.

Gulnoza Yakubova, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in Special Education at the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Yakubova’s research focuses on using technology-based interventions to teach autistic students the skills they need to have a successful life after school.

Whether you’re unfamiliar with neurodiversity or want to dive deeper into how to best support your neurodiverse students, Dr. Yakubova breaks down the basics of why neurodiversity and video learning are a perfect pairing.

1. How would you define or explain neurodiversity to people who have never heard the term before or perhaps misunderstand it?

The term neurodiversity is often used in the context of autism and other neurodevelopmental disabilities. The idea behind neurodiversity is people interpret the world around them differently and interact with their surrounding environment in many different ways.

In neurodiversity, the neurological differences are viewed as normal changes in brain functioning and therefore, are considered as strengths and normal variations of human functioning and not deficits to be cured.

Neurodiversity is centered on the social model of disability rather than a medical model of disability.

2. What are some of the most common misconceptions surrounding neurodiversity?

Some of the common misconceptions are that all neurodiverse people are similar, and neurodiversity does not recognize disability.

On the contrary, neurodiversity recognizes the unique nature of different ways of thinking and functioning among neurodivergent people and views disability from a social model of disability.

3. How did you become interested in video-based instruction (VBI) in relation to neurodiversity?

My research centers on teaching autistic children using video-based instruction.

I started this research as a graduate student teaching autistic children daily living skills and expanded to supporting students in mathematics learning.

4. How can the current educational system better support neurodiverse learners?

Specifically, speaking about my expertise area, which is teaching autistic students, we need to understand that there is no one size fits all.

We need to individualize instruction to the goals, strengths, and needs of each learner and use learner-centered approach in teaching. That starts with engaging with authentic stakeholders, i.e., children and parents/caregivers, getting to know the child thoroughly, listening to parents, and actively collaborating with the parents throughout.

5. Why is VBI effective for neurodiverse learners?

Relating to work using VBI to teach autistic learners, VBI can be created as a customized instruction for each specific learner instead of one size fits all approach.

In VBI, one uses visual modeling, clear and concise explanation, consistent language, and use only necessary information, thus, removing any distracting stimuli to prevent sensory overload.

VBI also helps breakdown cognitive load for autistic children and pace the instruction at individual learner levels. That’s one way to bridge the achievement gap and teach every student to mastery at their pace.

6. Is VBI more effective in certain subject areas than others?

There is research evidence VBI is an evidence-based practice in teaching numerous skills, such as social, daily living, academic, and many others, to autistic children.

7. What are your tips on creating effective VBI?

Some of the tips include using visual models to explain concepts, consistent and simple language to understand, include signaling cues when necessary, e.g., start of the video, highlights to pay more attention to, pause and reflect/answer questions in the video, and keeping the length of the video short.

8. Could you explain your research on parents creating VBI for their neurodiverse children?

I train parents to create VBI and use VBI to teach daily living skills in their home environment.

Parents initially receive comprehensive training on VBI and then ongoing coaching throughout to help them learn how to effectively create and use VBI for daily living skills.

Using VBI, autistic children can complete self-care and daily living tasks more independently and refer to the video instruction as they need. This removes the need to constant adult prompting and shifts prompting to self-prompting on VBI.

9. What are you currently working on in your research?

I am continuing my work in two areas: (1) training parents to create and use VBI with fidelity in teaching daily living skills to their autistic child, and (2) teaching autistic children using VBI via a virtual instruction.

10. Would you recommend Edpuzzle for creating VBI for neurodiverse learners?

I was not familiar with Edpuzzle before, but I quickly explored it and I think it could be a good tool for creating VBI for neurodiverse.

I especially liked the ability to individualize the existing videos to your student’s needs or even creating your individualized and interactive video with easy-to-use tools.

Have you tried using Edpuzzle for your neurodiverse students? Let us know on social media, and make sure to tag us @edpuzzle and Dr. Yakubova @gulnoza_ry!