Operational Definition

It is essential to establish a comprehensive definition of social engagement. However, each of the studies included in the review differed on the operational definition of social engagement. Three different types of operational definitions of social engagement were identified. Social engagement was either defined as exhibiting social initiations (Buggey, 2005; Buggey, Hoomes, Sherberger, & Williams, 2011; Williamson, Casey, Robertson, & Buggey, 2013), responding to questions (Buggey, 2005; Sherer et al., 2001), or being socially engaged (Bellini, Akullian, & Hopf, 2007; Victor, Little, & Akin-Little, 2011) which consisted of unprompted interactions with students during an activity. The operational definition of social engagement is important
Therefore, in order to effectively compare the effectiveness of each operational definition, studies were group and compared based on their operational definition.
Social Initiations Buggey (2005) conducted two studies in order to investigate the effectiveness of video self-modeling as an intervention with children with autism. The purpose of one of the studies presented in Buggey (2005) was to investigate the effectiveness of video self-modeling in increasing social initiations in children with autism. Two students in a middle school classroom ages eleven and nine years old, who were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder were selected to participate in the study. The participants were asked to participate in the filming
The purpose of this study was to determine if video self-modeling would be effective in increasing initiations of interpersonal greetings for three students with autism. Three middle school students with autism that were receiving special education services in a self-contained classroom setting. Each student was also diagnosed with having significant cognitive delays. Much like in Buggey (2005) study, a video was made of the students performing social initiations in the form of interpersonal greetings. Prior to the intervention, students were filmed performing the correct behavior. Initiations took place in two setting: the classroom (in the morning) and lunchroom. The inter-rater agreement process was conducted for 69% of the sessions and had a reliability of 96%. One participant exhibited two self-initiated interpersonal greetings, while another participant displayed one and the last participant did not display any social initiations during the intervention. The results of this study do not support the idea the video self-modeling increases the amount of social initiations exhibited by children with