Sosiale historier i et atferdsanalytiske tiltaksrepertoar eksemplifisert med en multippel basislinjedesign for øking av sosiale ferdigheter hos en elev med autisme

Abstract

Social storiesTM is an intervention package aimed at improving a wide range of skills associated with social adaption in children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Gray, the founder of Social storiesTM, states that the intervention is adapted to the characteristics of the ASD population. Through short stories providing accurate information about target subjects and behaviors, Social storiesTM is said to compensate core deficits in social awareness in the ASD population. Gray identifies parents and professionals as the authors of Social storiesTM for a specific child with autism. In describing Social storiesTM, Gray purposely uses an “everyday language”, avoiding terminology that may be unknown to parents or rejected by certain professionals. This should not rule out Social storiesTM in the behavioral intervention repertoire. Article 1 describes Social storiesTM the way Gray presents the intervention, explores the evidence base of Social storiesTM, suggest behavioral terms emphasizing rule-governing and positive control and discusses the effects based on behavioral principles. Social storiesTM may be described as verbal, function-altering stimuli that changes behavior by affecting evoking functions of stimuli related to target behavior, describing the three-term-contingencies of target behaviors. Further, the article discusses the impact Social storiesTM may have on the behavior of parents and professionals and argues that Social storiesTM may prove an effective addition to the behavioral repertoire of interventions. Further investigations in the applicability of Social storiesTM in students with autism in mainstream schools, implemented by teachers and assistants within regular resources and applied to various behaviors are recommended. Article 2 is based on the recommendations from article 1 and describes using Social storiesTM to increase social skills in a young student with autism in mainstream school, using a multiple probe design across behaviors. Social storiesTM proved effective in changing all behaviors. Surprisingly, the most promising results were sustained lower frequencies of target behaviors maintained by automatic, tactile stimuli. This article suggest further investigations of a larger number of single-case studies in mainstream schools and in the participants homes, implemented by parents and teachers and comparing effectiveness of Social storiesTM over different behaviors assumed to be maintained by diverse contingencies