Social story intervention is used to teach the concepts and strategies behind social behaviors before students enter a real social situation or to ameliorate problems when they arise. Social story intervention helps students identify pro social behav...
Social story intervention is used to teach the concepts and strategies behind social behaviors before students enter a real social situation or to ameliorate problems when they arise. Social story intervention helps students identify pro social behaviors that will be needed in a social situation.
This study had three purposes. First, it was to investigate the effects of social story intervention on spontaneous social behaviors. Second, it was to see if the behavior change could be maintained for a month after the intervention was withdrawn. Third, it was to see if the behavior change could be generalized to different people.
Three children with autism participated in the study. Dependent variables were three behaviors, greeting (Behavior 1), expressing thanks (Behavior 2), and saying good-bye (Behavior 3).
It used a multiple probe design across behaviors, and data were analyzed by visual analysis and anecdotal record.
The results showed the followings:
First, the social story intervention increased three spontaneous social behaviors of all the subjects. Second, in maintenance condition, the behavior changes in all the subjects were maintained for a month after the intervention was withdrawn (Subject A: Behavior 2 and Behavior 3, Subject B: all the target behaviors, and Subject C: Behavior 1 and Behavior 2). Third, in generalization condition, the behavior changes of all the subjects were generalized to different people.
The analysis by anecdotal record revealed that there was decrease in inappropriate behaviors (self injurious behavior and off-task behavior in all the subjects) collaterally as the target behaviors increased.
The results suggested that social story intervention can be used in improving various kinds of spontaneous social behaviors of autistic children. Implications, limitations, and recommendations for future study were discussed.