Decreasing Disruptive Behaviours of Children with Autism using Social Stories Dorothy Scattone

Susan M Wilczynski, Ron P Edwards, Brian Rabian Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Vol 32, No 6, 2002 P 535-543.

Few studies have been conducted in the area of social stories, and the limitations of these studies (i.e., improper story construction and methodological confounds) raise questions about effectiveness of social story interventions. This study examined the effectiveness of properly constructed social stories that have been introduced into the natural environment to target the disruptive behaviour of three children with autism. A multiple baseline design across participants was employed, and a decrease in disruptive behaviour was evidenced wen the intervention was implemented for all participants. Based on the results of the present research, future areas of investigation outlining the limitations and potential benefits of social stories were discussed.

A social story is a short story that is written in a child specific format describing a social situation, person, skill, event, or concept in terms of relevant cues and appropriate social responses. Each social story is designed to teach children with autism how to manage their own behaviour during a given social situation by describing where the activity will take place, when it will occur, what will happen, who is participating, and why the child should behave in a given manner. Gray outlined specific guidelines for the development of social stories in her book addressing the intervention. Unlike many other interventions for children with autism, social stories may draw on a unique quality these children may have. Specifically, because children with autism often rigidly adhere to routines, the social story may serve to establish a routine or a rule that the child may then apply to the social situation. In addition to drawing on this strength, the format of the social story may be less intrusive than alternative treatments for addressing social skill deficits in children with autism. By presenting the instructions in a written format (as opposed to interaction verbally to present the instructions), the social aspect of instruction delivery is minimised and may reduce the aversiveness of receiving instruction.

Overall, the participants demonstrated a reduction in their respective disruptive behaviours. The greatest reduction of disruptive behaviour occurred for Kenny, whose chair tipping decreased from a mean of 50% of intervals during baseline to a mean of 4.6% of intervals during intervention, and John, who decreased staring from a mean of 66.9% of intervals during baseline to a mean of 18.25% of intervals during intervention. Howard demonstrated the smallest reduction of disruptive behaviour, decreasing shouting from a mean of 18.15% of intervals during baseline to a mean of 5.1% of intervals during intervention.

The positive outcomes of this study are especially important because social stories are convenient, are unobtrusive, and may draw on a strength many children with autism demonstrate (i.e., adherence to rules/routines).

In conclusion, the present study replicated and extended the literature by demonstrating that properly constructed social stories may decrease the disruptive behaviours of some children with autism and that social stories may be used without planned systematic behavioural interventions such as token economies. However, future research is necessary to further validate the effectiveness of this intervention with and without planned prompts using rigorous experimental designs.