Using social stories to enhance the social and behavior skills of preschool children with autism or pervasive developmental disorder

Autistic or Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) children may exhibit impairments with communication skills, social skills, and cognitive skills. A treatment strategy called social stories may be an effective visual aid that provides individuals with autism/PDD accurate information regarding situations they encounter or skills they are working on. This thesis examined whether the use of social stories would increase the academic, social, and behavior skills of autistic/PDD children. A study was conducted over a three month period on three preschool students from the Bancroft Preschool. The purpose of writing a social story for each child was to teach the students to perform suitable social skills in a variety of settings. Data on the percentages of occurrences was taken on each individual before and during the intervention to show whether the social stories helped make a positive impact on their behaviors. Overall, the statistical and practical results in this study suggest that social stories may be useful in teaching social behavior skills to children with autism/PDD