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Social Stories and Autism Ranking: Insufficient/Mixed evidence

Current Research

We have identified more than 80 studies of social stories as an intervention for autistic individuals published in English language, peer-reviewed journals. These studies included more than 250 participants aged from three years old to adult but the majority of studies looked at children.

Some of the social stories were written by/provided by academic researchers, some by teachers and some by parents. Some were presented as plain text, some were presented with pictures, some were presented electronically and some were presented as songs. Some were presented in multi-media formats. 

The studies were conducted in a variety of locations including schools, clinics and family homes. Some studies were conducted in several different locations.

Most of the studies looked at social stories as standalone interventions, while a small number of the studies looked at social stories combined with other interventions (such as video modelling) or compared social stories with other interventions (such as visual schedules). 

  • Many of the studies reported decreases in inappropriate behaviour (such as speaking too loudly or being aggressive) in some participants. 
  • Many of the studies reported increases in desired behaviours (such as complying with instructions or interacting with peers) in some participants.
  • Some of the studies reported limited or mixed results.  For example, Malmberg et al, 2015 reported that social stories were less effective than video modelling and Leaf et al, 2012 reported that social stories were less effective than the teaching in interaction procedure.
Updated
17 Jun 2022
Last Review
01 Jul 2017
Next Review
01 Oct 2023