Digitally-Mediated Social Stories Support Children on the Autism Spectrum Adapting to a Change in a ‘Real-World’ Context

Abstract

Social Stories™ (SS) is a widely used intervention for children on the autism spectrum. A preliminary survey of 103 practitioners highlighted that SS are often used to support adapting to a change. This study investigated the use of digitallymediated SS to support ten children on the autism spectrum attending a school summer camp. Teacher perceptions of anxiety, understanding and closeness to the goal of the SS were assessed before and after the intervention (prior to the event). The pre-post-intervention comparisons highlighted significant improvements in child understanding, anxiety, and closeness to goal with medium-large effect sizes. The child's understanding and closeness to SS goal post-intervention related to their difficulties with the SS goal and their anxiety during the event.

The impact of using digitally-mediated social stories on the perceived competence and attitudes of parents and practitioners supporting children with autism

“…The findings are therefore consistent with previous studies, such as those carried out by Smith et al, [ 46 , 47 ] and by Constantin et al [ 32 ], who suggest that digitally-mediated SS could be effective in supporting children with autism. This could be achieved by utilising digital-mediation to maximise procedural integrity by improving an “author’s” competence to develop and deliver a SS.…”

“…Those with the least levels of competence and positive attitudes, perceived the greatest improvement in their competence and positive attitudes. The findings are therefore consistent with previous research which indicates that digitally mediated social stories can reduce the variability in the development of the stories and the delivery of the intervention, and improve effectiveness [ 43 , 46 , 47 ]. This study suggests that this may extend to parents and practitioners with a wide range of levels of previous experience.…”

“…This could be achieved by utilising digital-mediation to maximise procedural integrity by improving an "author's" competence to develop and deliver a SS. Furthermore, similar to Smith et al, [47], this study suggests that digital mediation could contribute towards better accessibility to the intervention for authors, and also reduce consumption of time and effort for both developing and delivering the intervention. Digital mediation of the intervention may therefore address the variability in effectiveness that has been identified in previous studies [11,[26][27][28][29][30].…”

“…In another study, conducted by Smith et al [ 47 ], digitally-mediated SS were used by summer camp teachers to support ten children with autism through the transition to the summer camp. Outcomes of this study were again indicative of appropriate procedural integrity and resulted in significant improvements in appropriate behaviours and reductions in inappropriate behaviours.…”

Mothers’ and practitioners’ insights on the use of digitally-mediated social stories with children on the autism spectrum: A convergent mixed-methods study

“…They reported that support through the use of digital-mediation (where SSs were developed using an online application and delivered through a smart-phone or tablet) resulted in greater fidelity and subsequent positive outcomes in terms of "closeness to a goal" of the SS. Similar studies by Smith et al (2020b) and Hanrahan et al (2020) also produced similar conclusions: that digitally-mediated social stories were effective in producing beneficial changes in behaviour outcomes whilst also improving procedural integrity. For example, Hanrahan et al (2020) reported an increase in the intensity of a child's interaction with the content of the story as a result of using technology, which in turn led to better engagement and increased comprehension.…”