Effectiveness of Social Stories on Social Skills for Elementary-Aged Students with Autism: A Literature Review

Abstract

Deficits in social interactions is one of the characteristics of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). There are numerous interventions that aim at establishing social skills--social stories being one of them. This review of professional literature focuses on the effectiveness of social stories on social skills of elementary-aged students with ASD. The authors identified nine peer-reviewed journal articles from the systemic review of three search engines and analyzed them through different categorizations that provide information on the methodologies used, effectiveness of social stories, the implementation of social stories, and demographic information provided on participants. Effectiveness and implementation of social stories were characterized by a large variability of findings. Effectiveness ranged from lasting behavior changes to no measurable change at all. Implementation differed regarding the mode of presentation, the use of guidelines for developing the stories, setting and reader, and other intervention strategies implemented alongside. The authors identified disparities regarding gender and racial/ethnic identity across studies, with a majority of participants being male and a lack of information concerning the racial/ethnic identity of participants. The potential gender and racial/ethnic/cultural bias needs to be addressed in further research to ensure that findings can be generalized to a larger and representative population.