Positive Effect of Social Stories on Autism Spectrum Disorders - Literature review Example

Running Head: Literature review on Positive Effect of Social Stories on ASD Positive Effect of Social Stories on ASD Children Name Course Lecture Date Introduction Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) has been verified to be a neuro-developmental disorder that is characterized by impairments in the verbal and non-verbal communication and affects the social behavior of the patient (American Psychiatric Association, 2000) in this case, the children. It is also characterized by the following problems depression, anxieties, eating and sleeping disorders, aggression, tantrums, temper, self injury or attention issues (Gray 2005). With the above understanding of disturbing characteristic of the disorders, proper and timely treatment is quite important in order to improve the outcomes (Marnie, 2005). There has been an increase in the number of students diagnosed with disorder. A survey carried out in 2007, revealed that the typical prevalence of children with the disorder was approximately 1 child per 120 children. Children diagnosed with this disorder show uniquely personalities that are quite different from their age-mate (CDC 2010). This increasing in number of children suffering from ASD has indeed increased the necessity of providing the right interventions in order to help the students to make social and academic achievement. There are various numbers of interventions that have been made available that promote, address the needs of the students (Craig, 2009). Over the past two decades, wide approaches of treatment have continued to be developed in an effort to remediate the main deficits that are associated with this disorder. Indeed, the interventions carried out vary widely. Some authors have noticed that since the early 1990s, social stories have been suggested to have encouraging effects on the behavior of children with autism spectrum disorder throughout the world (Mentor et al., 2012). Social stories depict skills, condition or even notion in terms of perspectives, social cues and ordinary responses in a specifically define style. The main goal of social stories is to accurately share social information with patients in a basically reassuring manner. Simply, they are short stories that are written for individuals that illustrate a particular activity and the specific manners expectations that are associated with the given activities. The social stories may be implemented through various methods; they may be read, by a nurse or independently, presented through video or audio equipment or programs (Craig, 2009). An important component, despite the method used to present the stories, is the monitoring of the patient immediately the intervention has been introduced by the caregiver. The progress of the patient is usually monitored by the nurse on the basis of intensity and frequency of the main targeted behavior. Literature review Many authors have carried out various researches on how the use of social studies can have positive behavior on children with ASD. This review uses the researches to review how social stories may positive affect the behavior of 7 to 8 year old student suffering from the disorder. Authors have written various literatures on the effect of social studies on students with ASD. Sansosti et al., (2004) and Reynhout & Carter (2006) found that the significant effects of short stories on student with ASD have partial investigational control, are highly changeable and are regularly confounded by concurrent use of some other interventions. Frederickson and Ali (2006) discuss the way the popularity of the social stories has continued to rise irrespective of the limited explore base. Their review mainly focused on the case study and the subject designs that gave affirmative effects from the standpoint of a doctor Test et al. (2011) show that there is a need for more research that evaluates the effect of social stories on student (children) with the disorder only. Their study of the research comprised on various published work that applied social stories as a component of the treatment parcel. Their review mainly focused on the studies as the only independent changeable and in their work the focused on it as a part of the treatment package. The reason of their review was to summarize studies that have published for over 16 years that appraised the use of social stories interventions with students with the disorder. Sansosti et al. (2004) also included various published work. The work was identified through database. As the appraisal methods were not clearly described, they considered methodologically faulty when based on the normal criteria that is used to assess the superiority of the published review. Most of the published work reported affirmative results of social stories for various behavioral targets. However, the authors asked the readers to consider the various findings with concern due to lack of the investigational control, feeble treatment of impacts; confusing treatment changeables and evidence in which the skills gained were not upheld (Sansosti et al., 2004). In addition, the authors emphasized basic weakness with the body of the published literature including insufficient measurement on treatment of steadiness and reliability in using the intervention, unblended results assessment, lack of careful consideration of social soundness and generalization of these interventions (Sansosti et al., 2006) Carter & Reynhout (2006) did a comprehensive review of various literatures that included manual searches and electronic database work. The authors described the criteria that they used to include and exclude work. However, the authors used poor data extraction and study assortment that were poorly described. In addition, their research lacked methodical attempt to assess the methodologically quality of all their included studies. They combined that data statistically; nevertheless, their advance in their work has been questioned as a result of the large heterogeneity transversely in terms of their technique and plan, the implementations and development of the involvement together with the quality of the participants in the carried studies. Actually, the authors agreed that the collective results need to be cautiously be interpreted due to some wanting in the main studies. Essentially, the review had about 15 studies, approximately 11 of them were one subject designs. It is important to note that while most of the studies registered appropriate (Carter & Reynhout, 2006) changes in the targeted behavior, the authors emphasized methodological limitations in the main studies; non-standardized execution and development of the social stories, confused changeable such as co-intervention, insufficient data on protection of perceived changes in behavior and the generalization to other different behaviors; questionable application of the reversal designs that are seen to be appropriate when the intervention was not totally reversible. In addition, the reviews stated on the insufficiency registering of the intervention, reserach method and the participants studied therefore, limiting generalizability of the findings that were beyond the studied participants. Finally, these authors concluded that the impacts of the use of social stories on students with this disorders, despite their age, significantly vary and the obtained results may be highly confused (Test et al., 2011). Ali & Fredrickson (2006) identified various published work by using limited research strategy in about two electronic databases. However, they did not describe their review as per the critiques expectations. The authors basically reviewed about 15 published work that were published from the after 1994 and before 2003. It is important to note that the reviewed studies agreed with the main findings of the previous discussed above. The authors emphasized the affirmative findings registered in various individual studies; nevertheless, the authors echoed some limitations that were cited in the previous reviews such as incorrectness of the reversal designs, irregular progress and executions of the given interventions, the role of co-interventions and confounding, lack of blinded and controlled investigational conditions and the basic need to consider long period and generalization maintenance. During the review, the authors asked what needed to be considered clinically significant in the literature and emphasized the significant of the functional results that are applicable to the need of individual children. In other studies, Andrew (2005) did a comparison of the effectiveness of the social stories versus stories without social loading involving children below the age of 12 years who were diagnosed with autism. In addition, they went ahead to deal with children above the age of 8.The author registered significant findings despite their methodological faults. However, the study had several strengths that included the use of blinded and autonomous result assessors ; therefore minimizing the risk of having finding bias, inclusion of consistent sample in respect to the investigation, an effort to control for the co-interventions such as behavior or reinforcement alteration strategies. In addition, there was rationale of the social stories, as well as the social and reading skills comprehensive means among the growing age-mates. It is important to note that the study found some advantages of the social studies in impacting constructive behavior on children with the disorder on the age studied. However, the study essentially limited to clinical setting. The author commented on the variation of the effect of social stories on the participants. He attributed the variation among children to the level of reading and IQ On the other hand, Bader (2006) assessed the effectiveness of social stories in comparison with social stories without an increase in the emotional appreciation in school going children with ASD below 13 years. The author noted that children mostly emulated some emotions after being exposed to a particular social story. Quirmbach (2006) in his evaluation of the effect of social stories on school going children with ASD below the 14 years reported that there was an affirmative effect of social stories on the student. He attributed this to the fact that this intervention improved various skills and social behavior on the participants. Overall, the reviews done by various authors suggested that the social stories interventions results in optimistic changes in aggressive skills in children with the disorder. However, it is important to note that there some authors who recorded mixed results in their reviews. As such, there is a need for explanation as to where there was lack if effectiveness perceived in the investigations. One may argue that the social stories alone cannot always offer enough inspiration or instruction to change a particular targeted behavior, in this case; aggressiveness. These social stories have to be combined with other basic interventions in order to absolutely change the behavior or improve the skills of a seven year old child with the disorder. Crozier and Tincania (2007) in their investigation demonstrated the above findings. In their research study, they found out that one of the participants did not respond positively to social stories intervention, therefore, the intervention was not successful. In addition, this explanation is still supported by a study done by the same authors, Crozier & Tincani (2005) when they did a comparison of the effect of the social stories unaccompanied and social stories combined with several other interventions such as verbal prompt on the aggressive behavior of a boy with the disorder. They found out that social stories alone decreased the aggressive behavior of the boy to a smaller extent when compared with the use of social stories with other interventions. Some critiques argue that the ineffectiveness of social stories alone on some participants may be brought up by lack of cure integrity. For instance, Sansosti & Powell-Smith (2006) showed that the guardians of the second participant in their investigation, whose aggressive behavior was not positively impacted by the social stories, never applied the treatment journal in order to make sure that the child read the social story. Still, most researchers reported that (those who received both mixed results of social stories on their participants) personality traits such as poor communication skills and lack of inspiration of a student may be related to the inconsistency of the effectiveness. Hanley-Hochdrfer et al. (2010) demonstrated that the records of decrease in the social engagement while using social stories intervention alone or even combined could be attributed to the fact that this intervention was carried out in a normal class setting instead of a controlled setting. Another possible explanation for the mixed results in the investigations carried out by various authors on the issues may be related to the extent which the researchers applied the Gray’s protocol (Gray, 2005). In particular, the probability of a story not well written to address a particular targeted behavior, aggressive behavior in a seven year old student in this case, could influence the effectiveness and efficiency of the social story intervention. As emphasized in the studies carried out by various authors on whether social stories may have positive effects on children with ASD, 7 to 8 years student, it was registered that the more strategies were indeed be applied together with the social stories intervention. These interventions such as visual and paired timetable may be considered essentially as confounders of the impact of social stories (Craig, 2009). Therefore, the true impact of social stories is hard to estimate and isolate. In addition, earlier published literatures have indeed identified the shortcomings and predominance of one case design in respect to the literature which still prevent definite conclusions concerning the efficacy and efficiency of social stories as compared to other type of interventions (Smith et al., 2007). One cannot dispute the fact that researchers have indeed used social story interventions with students with autism spectrum disorder to improve and change disruptive behavior and attain both social and functional skills. It is not surprisingly to find that most researchers have continued to appreciate the use of this intervention in changing behavior in students between the age of 7 and 8 with ASD. Indeed, they attribute this to the fact that social stories allow the information to be described well to the children while various accompaniment that are necessary in the treatment. The social stories indeed have the potential to establish a successful intervention when the practitioner put into consideration the age, language aptitude and cognitive stage of the student they are treating of the disorder (Test et al., 2011) Conclusion Despite the different results in the investigations carried out by various authors in the effect of social stories on children with ASD, social stories developed with a particular style and approach make play a significant role in assisting children with autism spectrum syndrome to cope with their unique social behavior. Most researchers believe that social stories basically address the theory of lack mind. It is obvious that by providing a seven year old student with understandable and clear information about how other people respond and feel, the social stories may reduce anxieties and increase confidence, therefore, decreasing the aggressive behavior. It is important to note that the researchers, most of them, are positive that to some extent the use of social stories indeed plays a major role in changing the behaviors of students with the disorders. However, other interventions should also be incorporated in order to make the intervention a success. References Ali, S, & Frederickson, N. (2006). Investigating the evidence base of social stories, Educational Psychology in Practice, 22, 355-377 American Psychiatric Association (2000) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association Andrews, S.M. (2005) Increasing game playing skills and social comprehension in school-aged children with autism using social stories. Dissert Abstract International B: Sciences and Engineering 65(10-B): 538 Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. (2010). Who many children have autism ? Available online at: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/features/counting-autism.html(accessed 25 June 2011 Accountability Office Craig, D. (2009). Action research essentials. New York: Jossey-Bass. Crozier, S., & Tincani, M. (2005). Using a modified social story to decrease disruptive behavior of a child with autism. Focus on Autism and Other developmental Disabilities, 20, 150-157. Gray, C. A. (2000). The new social story book. Arlington, TX: Future Horizons, Inc. Crozier, S., & Tincani, M. (2007). Effects of social stories on prosocial behaviors of preschool children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 1803-1814. Hanley-Hochdorfer, K., Bray, M. A., Kehle, T. J., & Elinoff, M. J. (2010). Social stories to increase verbal initiation in children with autism and as perger’s disorder, School Psychology Review , 39, 484-492. Marnie, S. (2005) ‘Special Education for Children with Autism’,Report to the chairman and ranking minority member, subcommittee on human rights and wellness, committee on government reform, house of representatives . Washington, DC: United States Government Mentor, L., Elliot, D., Hulme, M., Lewin, J. & Lowden, J (2012) Guide to practitioner research in education. London: Routledge Quirmbach, L.M. (2006) Social Stories: Mechanisms of Effectiveness in Increasing Social Skills, Social Skill Comprehension, Generalization and Maintenance of Newly Acquired Skills in School-Aged Children Diagnosed with Autism [dissertation] , PhD, Alliant International University, San Diego, CA Reynhout, G., & Carter, M. (2006) . Social stories for children with disabilities, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36, 445-469. Sansosti, F. J., & Powell-Smith, K. A. (2006). Using social stories to improve the social behavior of children with Asperger syndrome, Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 8(1), 43-57. Sansosti, F, Powell-Smith, K & Kincaid, D. (2004). A research synthesis of social story interventions for children with autism spectrum disorders, Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 19, 194-204. Test, D, Richter, S., Knight, V., & Spooner, F. (2011). Comprehensive review and meta-analysis of the social stories literature, Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 26 (1), 49-62. Read More