Are Social Stories for Autistic Children Effective?

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Social stories have been a constant companion in my parenting journey (with my two neurodivergent boys).

I, as well as our speech and occupational therapists, crafted social stories whenever we wanted to expand my boys’ understanding about which behaviors were safe and nourishing (which we wanted them to choose) and which ones were less safe and associated with greater discomfort and distress (which we wanted them to stop engaging in, or at least decrease). Or, we crafted social stories to break down instructions about how to perform a task, for instance how to play a “Guess Who” game with a friend, or how to play with trucks at the sand pit on a play date.

The social stories we crafted always involved explicit descriptions of various situations and addressed a myriad of "wh" questions; you know the ones: who, what, where, when, why, and how. They also included photos that my boys loved looking at. I loved seeing their reactions, "It's my picture!” “It's a book about me!" Personally, we found social stories incredibly effective, hence I continued using them over the years.

For instance, when we welcomed a new puppy into our home, a social story crafted by our speech therapist helped to clarify what behaviors were safe and nurturing toward the puppy. It outlined ideas for appropriate play and gentle handling, while also explaining that when a puppy barks, it is likely communicating that he doesn’t like what we are doing and would like us to be gentler. At other times, he may bark to get our attention, say hello, or be guarding our space.

Another social story crafted by our occupational therapist taught my boys to not run away from their granddad when they were out and about with him, at a trying time when they were testing their independence, as he cannot chase them. I also recall our occupational therapist crafting an incredibly effective social story for teaching my little one to not demand that we say a phrase repeatedly in a very precise way, or else… (he would feel distressed).

One of my favorite social stories was one I crafted about sharing toys, at a time my youngest was approaching an age where he felt curious about his big brother’s things and enjoyed reaching for them. Desperate to ease the occasional outbursts of temper that flared from the resultant shifts in boundaries, the social story outlined specific strategies for "sharing management," and was quite effective for our situation. While it wasn’t a miraculous cure for easing all of our frustrations around sharing, it was a resource that we returned to, over and again, that afforded us greater control and clarity over managing this situation.

I continue to make use of various social stories to help my own children and my little clients find ways to respond to their feelings, for instance expanding their awareness about appropriate and inappropriate responses for managing frustration.

Despite finding social stories personally invaluable, evaluating their effectiveness can be challenging. Social stories, by definition, are unique and tailored to an individual child, their family, and their environment, making comparisons difficult. In addition, they are delivered by unique individuals with various flavors of engagement and differences in the way they administer social stories. These include differences in joint attention and expression of encouragement and positive reinforcement. Social stories can also be delivered in many ways, such as via iPad, paper copy, audio, or video, and can vary in the quality of formatting, illustrations, and photos, and in how much these resonate with the child’s inner experience and understanding of a situation.

Many studies report positive outcomes associated with the use of social stories, including when social stories are administered by parents (Camilleri et al., 2022). These are usually measured via changes in the child's behavior (that is targeted in the social story). Camilleri et al. (2022) indicated that there has been an overall improvement in the quality of research regarding social stories within the last decade or so, which has been accompanied by an overall increase in reports of the effectiveness of social stories for autistic children (Karal & Wolfe, 2018; Qi et al., 2018; Aldabas, 2019). However, Camilleri et al. (2022) generally concluded that "further research is needed," in response to generally mixed findings regarding the strength of the effectiveness of social stories. It would be helpful to better understand what variables influence the effectiveness of social stories, in what settings, and for what individuals.

If you're looking to write your own social story, consider following the criteria of Carol Gray, an expert in this area, whose published work on this topic originated in the 1990s. Her latest comprehensive criteria for crafting social stories are available via her website (see the references section).

In general, Gray recommends that social stories:

1. Include clear goals about the information they would like to share, in a meaningful and safe manner.
2. Include details that are specific and relevant to the child’s circumstances and experience and, hence, are meaningful to them.
3. Have structure including an introduction to the topic, a main body, a conclusion, and an overall summary.
4. Use first or third-person language, while answering "wh" questions (who, what, where, when, why, how). This helps to keep the sentences within the social story descriptive rather than general. For instance, instead of saying "I go to the shop," a descriptive sentence may be "Mom and I go to Walmart every Saturday morning to do a big shop for the week.”

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Personally, I like to take matters into my own hands and test whether, for the purposes I am crafting a social story, it is having an impact. You, too, can be your own researcher and gather data before you introduce a social story, in between its various presentations, as well as at follow-up. Given the uniqueness of you, your child, and the social story, it may be the most effective way to see whether it will have an impact. Happy writing.