Efficacy of Videotape Self-Modeling in Treating an Electively Mute Child

We evaluated the efficacy of videotape self-modeling to treat a black third-grade male who had been selectively mute in the school environment for 4 years. Two self-modeling videotapes were made via a staging-and-editing process. The first self-modeling videotape showed the child answering direct questions from his teacher. The second self-modeling videotape showed the child volunteering to answer questions asked of the class as a whole. A multiple-baseline design across the two behaviors was used to assess the effectiveness of the interventions. The first self-modeling videotape produced a clear increase in the child's rate of answering direct questions from his teacher. The second tape produced equivocal results.