Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to develop a series of four Social Stories designed to promote the generalization of verbal pragmatic language skills taught during weekly speech therapy sessions into the less structured social setting of the inclusion classroom. Social Stories were developed through extensive inquiry into evidence-based methods of promoting social skills development (Gray,2015; Pane et al., 2015; Rust &Smith, 2006; Test et al., 2011). The Social Stories were designed to enhance the carryover of verbal pragmatic skills while maintaining the primary aim of promoting social inclusion opportunities for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The question this project was designed to address was whether Social Stories introduced in speech therapy sessions can help a student with ASD promote generalization of social skills to the inclusion classroom setting. This project investigated whether a student could continue to engage with others using newly learned verbal pragmatic skills during non-treatment times in the inclusion classroom setting through the development and use of specifically targeted Social Stories. A series of three Social Stories were developed in accordance with the functional speech goals and objectives from the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) of a fifth-grade student identified with both ASD and Communication Impairment.

The series of three Social Stories were designed to address the student’s three verbal pragmatic goals and objectives:
(1) Answering others’ questions verbally and/or with supportive body language,
(2) Asking follow-up questions about a topic, and (3) Starting conversations with others.

Baseline data was collected via a checklist measuring how often the student engaged in each of the three targeted verbal pragmatic behaviors. The checklists utilized whole interval data recording. Over the course of two 45-minute lessons in Science and Social Studies, data was recorded on a separate log for each target behavior based upon whether that behavior occurred at any point. A (+) was marked if the targeted behavior occurred throughout the duration of a five-minute interval and a (-) was marked if the targeted behavior did not occur during an interval. Next, each of the three Social Stories were presented to the student over the course of separate two-week periods during in-school pull-out speech therapy sessions. Additionally, staff and family read the stories with the student. Post intervention data was collected repeating the same process as baseline data collection. An analysis of the data revealed a positive increase in all three targeted behaviors related to the acquisition of verbal pragmatic language skills and social language use. This presentation will discuss the use of Social Stories to promote the acquisition of verbal pragmatic language and social language use, the impact different educational settings have on the acquisition of verbal pragmatic language and social language use, and the need for collaboration between all stake holders in the delivery of services to individual with ASD.

Keywords:

Autism, Social Stories, Speech Therapy.