Determining the Influences of Social Story Presentation for Individuals With Developmental Disabilities

Thursday, 11:00am to 1:00pm
Seabright
Poster 1
Social Stories were developed by Gray (1993) to accurately describe a situation, skill or concept, which serve as a technique to facilitate social skills. A study by Flores, et al., (2012) found that employing the iPad to teach a specific skill garnered positive results in communication. Research determining the influences of Social Story presentation for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) will provide benefits to those individuals and to speech-language pathologists in facilitating positive social behavior. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the most effective learning technique for teaching Social Stories, specifically greetings, to individuals with developmental disabilities. The design of this study was an in-between group, pre-assessment, post-assessment randomized quasi-experimental design. Participants were recruited via a flyer and obtained by a sample of convenience. The study aimed to measure if a Social Story about greetings presented on an iPad would influence an increase in pragmatics in young adults with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Results of the study indicated that both the control and experimental groups exhibited an increase in appropriate greeting behaviors and a decrease in inappropriate greeting behaviors. However, the experimental group, who received the Social Story on the iPad, demonstrated maintenance of the appropriate social skills over time. Despite the lack of statistical significance in the results, qualitative findings displayed higher levels of engagement due to visual stimulation to those in the experimental group who were presented with the Social Story on the iPad.
Track: 
Multi-Interest