The effectiveness of social stories in a young child with autism: a single case study

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate how occupational therapists could use and tailor social stories to meet the individual needs of a child with autism. This single-case study occurred over a 10-week period and researched whether the constructed stories would be useful in decreasing the intensity and duration of four interfering behaviors identified by the child's mother. An initial interview was conducted with the mother to gather information necessary to create the stories. A post interview was conducted to summarize the findings and gain an understanding of the mother's overall experience utilizing the stories. Behavior observation forms were used to record the intensity and the duration of the behaviors. A separate form was provided on which the mother recorded what days the books were read. Results indicated a substantial decrease in the intensity level and duration of the targeted interfering behaviors in three of the four social stories