Social Stories and Autism Ranking:

There are a number of limitations to all of the research studies published to date. For example

The overwhelming majority of studies consisted of single-case designs with 3 or less participants.
Some of these single-case design studies used extremely weak methodologies (such as simple AB reversal designs) or were descriptive case studies only.
Some of the studies did not provide enough details about the participants, such as whether they had a formal diagnosis of autism, intellectual ability etc.
It is not clear how many of the studies actually followed the defining characteristics of social stories described by Gray.
Very few of the studies examined the different elements of social stories (such as sentence type, format of presentation etc.) to determine which, if any, are the most important for which groups of people.
Very few of the studies compared social stories with other interventions which are designed to achieve similar results, such as video modelling.
Very few of the studies examined if social stories can be used as one of the elements within comprehensive, multi-component, treatment models
Most of the studies did not state if the social stories provided any beneficial effects which lasted in the medium to long term.
Most of the studies did not state if the social stories provided any practical benefits in real world settings.
Most of the studies did not involve autistic people in the design, development and evaluation of the research.

For a comprehensive list of potential flaws in research studies, please see ‘Why some autism research studies are flawed’

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