The Effectiveness of Social Stories with Visual Cues for the Successful Social
Inclusion of Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in Primary Schools
Purpose of Study
•The government drive for inclusion (Barnard, Prior & Potter, 2000;
Batten, 2005) coupled with the realities that teachers feel ill equipped to
meet the needs of an increasing population of children with ASD in
mainstream schools has lead to Educational Psychologists (EPs) being
asked for support by schools (Ali & Frederickson, 2006).
•Social Stories are an increasingly recommended intervention by many
professionals, including Educational Psychologists (EP), (Rust & Smith
2006; Sansosti, Powell – Smith & Kincaid, 2004).
•The core aim of a Social Story is to increase social understanding for the
child which then may also lead to a decrease in inappropriate behaviours
that are displayed.
•The visual processing skills of children with ASD are considered to be an
area of relative strength. However to date no research evidence has been
found where a direct comparison has been made where children are given
one Social Story with pictures for a particular social situation and a Social
Story without pictures for another social situation in order to compare their
effectiveness.
Hypotheses
Hypothesis 1: Social Stories with
visual cues will be more effective than
Social Stories without visual cues in
decreasing specific inappropriate
behaviours in pupils with ASD.
Hypothesis 2: Targeting a specific
social situation that involves the
teaching of a few skills (such as lining
up correctly) will lead to the Social Story
being more effective for pupils with ASD
than targeting a more abstract social
situation (such as playing with other
children at school) that requires the
pupil to be taught a range of skills.
Results
Hypothesis 1: Nine out of fourteen Social Stories were successful. At least one Social Story was effective for each
participant in increasing their social understanding of a specific social situation as well as decreasing inappropriate
behaviours that were displayed. Four Social Stories with pictures and five Social Stories without pictures were effective,
suggesting that Social Stories with pictures are not superior to Social Stories without pictures. It may be the visual
nature of the Social Story itself is sufficient for the intervention to be effective.
Hypothesis 2: Study has shown that defining whether the targeted social situation is more concrete or abstract is very
much dependant on whether the individual pupil with ASD has the prerequisite skills for the social situation and requires
some further guidance on how to utilise these through a Social Story.
Example of Data Collected for a Social Story
Discussion Points
Inappropriate Behaviour
Sitting Together at Group Time
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Baseline Phase
9
Intervention Phase
Withdrawal Phase
9
7
6
5
4
2
2
1
1
0
0
0
0 0
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
1
0
0
1
2
Week 1
3
4
5
Week 2
6
7
0
8
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Methodology
Participants: Six male pupils and one
female pupil, in mainstream settings, three
of whom have a diagnosis of ASD and four
have a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome.
Design: Replicated across participant AB
design followed by a withdrawal phase to
test the maintenance of the intervention
effect
Procedure: Each participant was the
recipient of two Social Stories, a Social
Story that contained visual stimuli and a
Social Story without visual stimuli. The
order that the Social Story was given was
randomised through the toss of a coin.
Baseline (A) observation data was
collected three times a week for two
weeks. The Social Story was introduced
(B), observation data collected three times
a week for maximum three weeks. The
intervention was withdrawn, observation
data collected three times a week for two
weeks.
Data Analysis: The Percentage of Nonoverlapping Data (PND, Scruggs,
Mastropieri & Casto, 1987) and the
Percentage of data points Exceeding the
Median of the baseline phase (PEM, Ma,
2006) for each Social Story intervention
were calculated.
•The study implies that it may be that Social Stories being visual, as they are presented in written form, is sufficient for pupils with
ASD. Thus the distinction between Social Stories with pictures and those without may not be as great as anticipated.
•Careful consideration needs to be taken as to whether the social situation targeted is an area that the pupil can change or the
teaching of various social skills is required prior to the Social Story intervention being implemented or in combination with it.
•There are several features that have ensured the success of the Social Story, for example the personalised nature of each story,
the consideration of the pupil’s views particularly with perspective sentences, allowing the pupil with ASD to see situations from
another’s perspectives and the skills required in the social situation.
•Pupils with ASD are likely to require multi-modal intervention approaches (Howlin, Gordon, Pasco, Wade & Charman, 2007).
Social Stories could serve as one effective intervention that should be applied as part of a wider treatment package.
Days
Dr. Sonia Shah