Effects of Social Stories on Prosocial Behavior of Preschool Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Abstract

Social Stories are a popular intervention for preschool children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), but little research on Social Stories has been conducted with this population. This study investigated the effects of Social Stories on prosocial behavior of three preschool children with ASD in an inclusive setting. An ABAB design was used for two participants, while an ABACBC was used for the third. Social Stories increased appropriate behavior and decreased inappropriate behavior for two participants. The addition of verbal prompts (condition C) was necessary to increase appropriate behavior for the third participant. Maintenance probes were conducted to assess whether stories became imbedded in classroom routines. Results are discussed in relation to applications, study limitations, and areas for future research.

The Combined Use of Video Modeling and Social Stories in Teaching Social Skills for Individuals with Intellectual Disability

“…Consequently, the opinions of both participants and teachers related to the study results were seen to be positive. This finding complies with the social validity findings obtained from other research conducted that had used the subjective evaluation approach on this subject (Akmanoğlu & Tekin-İftar, 2011;Croizer & Tincani, 2006;Delano, 2003;Dodd at al., 2008;Emecen, 2008;Graetz, 2003;Nikopoulos & Keenan, 2003;Sansosti & Powell-Smith, 2008;Scattone, 2008). However, data had only been collected from the teachers and families of participants in these studies using the subjective evaluation approach.…”

“…Maintenance data revealed that the target social skills acquired by the participants had been maintained after completion of the intervention. Maintenance data collected from many studies that examined the effectiveness of interventions using video modeling, Social Stories, or the combination of the two showed that participants had maintained the acquired skills after the intervention terminated (Akmanoğlu & Tekin-İftar 2011;Bidwell & Rehfeldt, 2004;Croizer & Tincani, 2006;Delano, 2003;Delano & Snell, 2006;Gena et al, 2005;Graetz, 2003;Keyworth, 2004;Kuoch & Mirenda, 2003;Nikopoulos & Keenan, 2003;Özdemir, 2008;Quilty, 2007;Reichow & Sabornie, 2009;Sansosti & Powell-Smith, 2008;Schenider & Goldstein, 2010;Swaine, 2004;Washburn, 2006;Wert & Neisworth, 2003;Xin & Sutman, 2011). The maintenance findings of this study were similar to findings from other research; this supports the findings in the literature.…”

“…Social stories are short stories prepared in a certain format and written according to certain rules; they objectively define a skill, event, or situation in order to explain social situations, teach social skills, and enable students to appropriately respond in the social situations that they face (Barry & Burlew, 2004;Gray, 1998;Gray & Garand, 1993;Scattone, 2002). There are many studies in the literature that have examined the effectiveness of Social Stories in teaching different social skills (Croizer & Tincani, 2006;Delano, 2003;Delano & Snell, 2006;Dodd, Hupp, Jewell, & Krahn, 2008;Norris & Dattilo, 1999;Olçay-Gül & Tekin-İftar, 2012;Reichow & Sabornie, 2009;Schneider & Goldstein, 2010;Smith, 2001;Swaine, 2004;Washburn, 2006;Xin & Sutman, 2011). The majority of these research has been conducted with individuals with ASD.…”

“…Only two of them were carried out with individuals with learning disability (Kalyva & Agaliotis, 2009) and behavioral problems (Toplis & Hadwin, 2006). When examining these research in terms of participants' age groups, they were seen to mostly be carried out with individuals between the ages of 7 and 16; no studies were conducted on individuals with intellectual disabilities older than 18, and only a handful were carried out with children between the ages of 3 and 6 (Croizer & Tincani, 2006;Kuoch & Mirenda, 2003;Lorimer, Simpson, Myles, & Ganz, 2002;Schneider & Goldstein 2010;Smith, 2001). Analyzing the research in terms of the practiced social skills, asking for a favor (Delano, 2003;Swaine, 2004), greeting (Reichow & Sabornie, 2009), forming social interactions (Sansosti & Powell-Smith, 2006;Smith, 2001), turn-taking and not interrupting others' words (Washburn, 2006), and speaking by holding the floor (Xin & Sutman, 2011) were found to be practiced.…”

iCanLearn: A Mobile Application for Creating Flashcards and Social Stories™ for Children with Autism

“…The stories help the child with ASD understand how someone else might be feeling, and how they can respond appropriately [7,8]. Literature shows that the stories improve the child with ASD's understanding of social expectations for behavior in multiple studies across a variety of settings [9][10][11][12][13]. Both these methods are thought to improve the child's expectations of routines and behaviors expected of them during the routines.…”