Research: Decreasing Disruptive Behaviors of Children with Autism Using Social Stories

This article reports research showing that social stories can help children with autism reduce problem behaviors and replace them with more socially appropriate behaviors.

Three children with autism (ages 7-15 years old) had behaviors that were considered disturbing. One behavior was selected for a social story written for each child. The purpose of these social stories was to reduce these three behaviors: chair tipping, staring at girls, and shouting during math class. Each childâ??s teacher introduced the story written for that child, and checked whether the child understood it. After that, the children read the stories to themselves in the classroom each morning. The social stories were also available all day. Behavior improved immediately for two children, and after two weeks for the other child. The authors point out that social stories may work because children with autism tend to prefer routines and rules, and social stories present these children with routines and rules to apply to specific social situations.