Social Story™ Interventions for Students With Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Meta-Analysis
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Kokina, A., & Kern, L. (2010).
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 40(7), 812-826.
This meta-analysis investigates the effects of Social Stories™ and the impact of moderator variables (e.g., intervention and participant characteristics) on social and communication skills in participants on the autism spectrum.
Not stated
Up to April 2009
Single-subject design with demonstration of an experimental control (i.e., reversal design, multiple baseline across three or more legs) a
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Social Stories™ "seemed to be substantially more effective when used to target behavior reduction than to teach the appropriate social skills" (p. 822). Social Story interventions read just prior to the targeted situation, and those depicting single behaviors instead of more complex chains of behaviors, were associated with higher effectiveness.<br /><br />"Results of this investigation confirmed previous findings regarding the questionable effectiveness of Social Story interventions .... Specifically, the total average intervention PND [percentage of non-overlapping data] score in this study [60%] ... fell below the cutoff PND score of 70 suggested for effective intervention" (p. 822).
Since only a limited portion of participants demonstrated more significant cognitive, social, or language delays, "caution should be used when planning Social Stories™ interventions to assist students [with significant delays]" (p. 824).
"Social Stories™ implemented in the general education settings produced substantially larger effects on students' behaviors than those implemented in the self-contained settings" (p. 823).
"Two intervention characteristics, intervention length and the number of Social Stories per child, were included to examine the effects of treatment intensity. Brief interventions (i.e., 1–10 sessions) were associated with higher treatment effectiveness than medium (i.e., 11–20 sessions) or long (over 20 sessions) interventions.... At the same time, while most studies used just one Social Story per participant, the few studies that used several Social Stories per child ... seemed to produce higher effects on the students’ behavior. It is therefore possible that higher treatment intensity is associated with improved participant outcomes" (p. 823).
"In this meta-analysis, lower PND [percentage of non-overlapping data] scores were obtained for the studies that did not involve comprehension checks,implying that lower treatment outcomes could be due to a lack of participants’ understanding of Social Stories" (p. 824).
"Studies that used target children as their own [Social Stories™] intervention agents were substantially more effective than those that were run by adults (i.e., teachers, researchers, or parents)" (p. 823). Additionally, implementation of Social Stories "by natural intervention agents (i.e., teachers or students) resulted in more pronounced intervention effects than implementation by researchers" (p. 823).
