Digitally-Mediated Social Stories Support Children on the Autism Spectrum Adapting to a Change in a 'Real-World' Context.
Elizabeth Smith, Aurora Constantin, Hilary Johnson and 1 others
PMID 32519189WHAT IT FOUND
In ten autistic children, a one-week digital social story intervention significantly improved teacher-rated understanding, closeness to goals, and reduced anxiety before a school camp.
These pre-camp ratings correlated with fewer problems during the camp, but the study had no control group.
Key findings
01Teacher-rated anxiety significantly decreased and understanding/closeness to goals significantly increased after the one-week intervention.
02Higher post-intervention ratings for understanding and closeness to goals correlated with lower problem severity and anxiety during the actual summer camp.
03Children preferred the iPad format to books, but there was no comparison group to determine if the digital format, the story, or the researcher's attention caused the improvements.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
No control group or comparison condition, so it is impossible to know if the intervention caused the changes or if they would have happened anyway. Very small sample size (10 children) makes the results exploratory and not generalizable. Teachers were not blinded to the study aims, which may have influenced their ratings. The researcher delivered the intervention personally, so the effect might be due to the attention received rather than the Social Story itself. Children's self-reported experience of the camp did not change significantly, despite teacher reports of improvement.
Declared interests
Funded by the Leverhulme Trust. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume the digital app or the Social Story itself caused the improvement. The study lacked a control group, and the children received daily one-on-one attention from the researcher, which could explain the reduced anxiety and improved ratings.