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Abstract: Social Stories are a story-based intervention commonly used to teach students with disabilities how to behave in new routines or changing environments, academic skills, and social interactions including fading others' emotions. According to the National Standards Project, story-based interventions are considered an established treatment. However, the efficacy of Social Stories is confounded by limitations in chosen experimental designs, threats to internal validity, and additional interventions within treatment packages. The current study used Social Stories to teach classroom social skills to children diagnosed with an intellectual disability. We used a multiple baseline across participants design to evaluate changes in classroom social skills when using Social Stories . We taught a total of four response classes, including: saying, "please, " saying, "thank you, " appropriate hand raising, and giving assistance. The results indicate that Social Stories may be an effective intervention to increase classroom social skills. This is one of the first studies to evaluate and demonstrate the effectiveness of Social Stories as a standalone intervention. The present study also extends the current social studies literature in several areas, such as developing ways to promote generalization and assessing the social validity of the goals, procedures, and outcomes of the study.
Evidence of correlational and longitudinal research suggests social and emotional competency may be a predictor of academic achievement (Jones et al., 2011; Malecki & Elliott, 2002; Oberle et al., 2014; Wentzel, 1991). Prosocial behaviors, such as helping, sharing, cooperation, manners, and responding to rules are deemed particularly favorable in the classroom for school-aged children and adolescents (Albrecht et al., 2015; Meier et al., 2006; Wentzel & Erdley, 1993). However,
This study is based on a thesis submitted by the first author, under the supervision of the second author, for the Master of Arts in Applied Behavior Analysis at Caldwell University. A special thank you is extended to the graduate students at Caldwell University for their assistance with data collection. We also thank the learners and their families for their participation in this study. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Sharon A. Reeve, Department of Applied Behavior Analysis, Caldwell University, 120 Bloomfield Ave, Caldwell, NJ 07006. E-mail: [email protected] these skills are often challenging to acquire for individuals diagnosed with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Deficits...