Social Stories
Overview
Social stories refer to the short stories designed for children with autism as a way of enabling them have an effective understanding of the various social situation. In most cases, the short stories serve the purpose of helping children with autism to have the capability of predicting and anticipating for a given situation and even teaching them in the right form of behavior concerning the given situations. Thus, the aim of using social stories as a method of helping children with autism manage the condition is providing the victims with effective social understanding (Ozdemir, 2010).
Treatment Feasibility
- Treatment Acceptability
In terms of treatment acceptability of social stories as an effective way of managing autism in young victims, the method is highly acceptable for being effective. In a study by Balakrishnan & Alias, (2017) to establish social stories effectiveness, it was found that three of the four participants improved their capability to make friends when the social story method was employed. Also, there was an improvement in the communication in the patients after exposure to visual observation. The findings are a suggestion that the use of social stories as a way of improving social interaction amongst the people living with autism has a positive impact.
- Demand for the Services
Due to the effectiveness of the social stories approach in managing autism in children, there is an increasing demand of incorporating the method in autism management by parents with autistic kids, teachers, as well as psychologists (Smith, 2001).
- Treatment Fidelity
In terms of treatment fidelity, the American Speech-Language association carried out an analysis of the application of social stories in teaching the aspect of social skills to kids with autism spectrum disorders. The analysis resulted in evidence rating for the social stories method as follows: very effective- a percentage of non-overlapping data (PND) had a score of above 90, the effective level had a PND of over than 70-90 scores, and the questionable effectiveness ranged from 50 to 70 scores (Bozkurt, 2014).
- Integration
Concerning the aspect of integration to achieve social stories effectiveness, the method was best with the use of supplementary tactics. For example, a young autistic learner must sit in a way that would have peers leaning away from him, not raise a hand when the class is asked questions, as well as be encouraged to make necessary noises or comments (Cosgrave, n.d.).
Literature Support
Benish & Bramlett (2011), engaged in a study to determine social studies effectiveness in managing autism among learners. The findings showed that participants exhibited an improvement in their aggressive behavior as well as positive peer interactions. Also, the method allowed instructors to have one-on-one interaction with autistic learners, thus gaining more better ways of helping them cope with the condition (Benish & Bramlett, 2011).
Weaknesses
First, the social stories method cannot be effective in managing autism when used alone. Instead, it requires supplementary for its effectiveness (Bucholz, 2012). Secondly, the method requires a lot of time for it to turn out successful. For example, a study by Golzari, F., Hemati
Alamdarloo, & Moradi, (2015) showed that participants required a relatively extended period in terms of training for them to benefit significantly from the approach.
References
Balakrishnan, S., & Alias,
- (2017). Usage of social stories in encouraging social interaction of children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of ICSAR, 1(2), 91-97.
Benish, T. M., & Bramlett,
- K. (2011). Using social stories to decrease aggression and increase positive peer interactions in normally developing pre‐school children. Educational Psychology in Practice, 27(1), 1-17.
Bozkurt, S. (2014). An
Analysis of the Use of Social Stories in Teaching Social Skills to Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice, 14(5), 1875-1892.
Bucholz, J. L. (2012).
Social Stories™ for Children with Autism: A Review of the Literature. Journal of Research in Education, 22(2), 48-73.
Cosgrave, C. (n.d.). Social
Stories. Retrieved from https://www.educateautism.com/social-stories.html#social-supp
Golzari, F., Hemati
Alamdarloo, G., & Moradi, S. (2015). The effect of a social stories’ intervention on the social skills of male students with autism spectrum disorder. SAGE Open, 5(4), 2158244015621599.
Ozdemir, S. (2010). Social
stories: an intervention technique for children with Autism. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 5, 1827-1830.
Smith, C. (2001). Using
social stories to enhance behaviour in children with autistic spectrum difficulties. Educational psychology in Practice, 17(4), 337-345.