Developing Unique Social Stories as a Behavioural Intervention for an Eight-Year Old Boy with Asperger Syndrome

Abstract

This case study examined the effectiveness of social story interventions for an eight-year old Chinese boy diagnosed with mild Asperger’s disorder in an international school in Hong Kong. A personalised approach based on Carol Grays (1994) Social Story Handbook was utilized. Social stories focus on teaching children with ASD the social cues and behaviours they need to know to interact with others in a socially appropriate manner. Specifically the following behaviours were targeted: calling out to the teacher, laughing inappropriately, repeating what the teacher said and frequent visits to the toilet. Pre-intervention observations were made over a one week period followed by a 2 week intervention which concluded with post-intervention observations over a one week period. After this brief intervention promising results were obtained particularly in calling out and inappropriate laughter. The learning support teacher who initiated this intervention has been successful in transferring these skills to the classroom teacher who continues to use the social stories on a daily basis.