| Author: | Poon, Pui-lam Pauline |
| Title: | Social story intervention for preschoolers with autism |
| Degree: | M.Sc. |
| Year: | 2006 |
| Subject: | Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations. Autistic children -- Education (Early childhood) Storytelling. Social interaction in children. |
| Department: | Department of Rehabilitation Sciences |
| Pages: | x, 102 leaves : col. ill. ; 30 cm. |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | To date, there are accumulating studies to validate the use of social story as an effective intervention for people with autism. However, there is no formal investigation for Chinese population. This study aimed at examining the impact of social story intervention in a group format on the emotional control of Cantonese-speaking preschoolers with autism. Two social story scenarios in Chinese were developed for this study: (1) accepting a loss in a game; (2) understanding that a person cannot always get what he/she wants. A total of five boys, aged three to five, were recruited based on their language performance and challenging behaviors exhibited. For each social story scenario, an ABAB design was used. Each phase lasted for four weeks and thus the duration of each intervention was 16 weeks. Baseline data of positive and challenging behaviors exhibited by the five participants were collected in phase A. Social story were read in phase B in a group situation. Role play was conducted to consolidate the target positive behavior for better emotional control. Weekly training of the social story scenario lasting for half and hour was videotaped. The caregivers were invited to read the two social stories at home. Two focus groups were conducted to collect comments from the caregivers. Results showed that the five participants increased the target positive behaviors from 113% to 24 times. The frequency of their challenging behaviors decreased from the professional's record from 50% to 90%. The duration of the challenging behaviors decreased from 88% to 99% of the time. The increase in positive behaviors and the decrease in the challenging behavior were significant as the changes were beyond the two standard deviation band at p=0.05. Among all the target positive behavior, the most significant improvement of all the participants was the increase in the use of verbal expression. The five participants' caregivers in the two focus group interviews agreed that the social story intervention helped their children to have better emotional control at home. They all expressed that the social story intervention was promising and should be continued. One of the caregiver started to learn writing the social story. Results of this pilot study indicated that the two social stories in Chinese conducted in a group mode were effective in improving the emotional control of preschoolers with autism. This preliminary study suggested that further research using a controlled investigation should be conducted to examine in a greater depth the effectiveness of the social story intervention for people with autism. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b19863603.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 26.98 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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