Do Social Stories help to decrease disruptive behaviour in children with autistic spectrum disorders? A review of the published literature

Abstract

A structured search and identification of themes within the literature regarding the use of Social Stories to decrease disruptive behaviour in children with autistic spectrum disorders is presented. The examination of seven studies showed that the Social Story intervention was successful for the majority of the participants, although the level of success was variable. Overall, Social Stories appear to be an acceptable intervention for use in the classroom, however unplanned verbal prompting by teachers, in some studies, reduced confidence in the effectiveness of Social Stories when used in isolation. An increasing body of literature has indicated that Social Stories are an effective intervention for children diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorders, however very few studies have addressed the efficacy of Social Stories when used with children with other disabilities.

A Pilot Randomised Control Trial of Digitally-Mediated Social Stories for Children on the Autism Spectrum

“…Addressing maladaptive behaviours of children on the autism spectrum is of utmost importance as they negatively impact daily activities (Brereton et al 2006). Maladaptive behaviours also impair the development of social skills, creating life-long barriers to inclusion (Rhodes 2014). In addition, maladaptive behaviours increase caregiver and family stress as they can be difficult to manage (Ludlow et al 2012;O'Nions et al 2018;Tomanik et al 2004;Yacoub et al 2018).…”

“…In addition, behaviour often returns to baseline after the intervention and any long-term effects are questionable. These children also served as their own controls reducing the ability to reliably attribute the behaviour outcomes to the social story intervention (Sansosti et al 2004), as a change in behaviour may have been due to regular and supportive one-to-one attention (Rhodes 2014).…”

Étude exploratoire sur la rédaction et l’utilisation de scénarios sociauxMD par des mères d’enfants ayant un trouble du spectre de l’autisme

“…Plusieurs recensions des écrits présentent des résultats positifs (Brunner et Seung, 2009;Camiré et Goupil, 2012;Kokina et Kern, 2010;Rhodes, 2014) tout en soulignant la nécessité de poursuivre les études sur les scénarios sociaux. Toutefois, la méta-analyse de Qi, Barton, Collier, Lin et Montoya (2016) ne classe pas le scénario social dans les pratiques probantes.…”

Training Parents to Create and Implement Social Stories™: Promoting Social Competence in Children Without Disabilities

“…The efficacy of SS is well documented, primarily for children with ASD, but it has also been utilized by practitioners for children without ASD (Benish & Bramlett, 2011;Delano & Stone, 2008;Gray & Garand, 1993). Several systematic literature reviews and meta-analyses have been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of SS for children with ASD and have documented potential practical applications and variability of individual outcomes (Kokina & Kern, 2010;Rhodes, 2014;Test, Richter, Knight, & Spooner, 2011). Among SS studies with children diagnosed with ASD, those that have used robust single-case research designs have reported evidence that supports the efficacy of SS (Leaf et al, 2015).…”