Social Story Reflection

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Social Story Reflection

In my viewpoint, social stories tend to have a positive outcome for children with disabilities. The behaviors of children with autism tend to improve when instructors use social stories. For autistic children, making understanding their environment goes a long way in boosting their learning abilities and telling them social stories does precisely that. After interacting with Reynhout’s and Carter’s meta-analysis on social stories, I agree with their findings that social stories are a promising intervention for children with disabilities. Social stories as an intervention apply to a wide range of behaviors. I agree with Reynhout’s and Carter’s assertion that there is a need for further research to find out the exact nature of the contribution of social stories for children with disabilities as the components that are key to their efficiency. Research has shown that social stories might be more effective at assisting children manage their behaviour than helping them pick up specific skills (Stathopoulou, Loukeris, Karabatzaki, Politi, Salapata, & Drigas, 2020). For social stories to function as intended, they should be highly personalized to meet each child’s specific needs. Furthermore, social stories should be told to children at the right time for them to function as intended.

In my opinion, social stories are effective in assisting autistic children in growing social behaviour in different settings. I realize that children with disabilities might struggle to identify the kind of social setting they are in. However, because social stories can be personalized and created to suit any environment, it is a practical way to help autistic children different between different environments. As such, I would put incorporate social stories as a teaching intervention method in the classroom set-up. Upon reading Reynhout and Carter’s text, I understood the whole idea behind social stories. I realize that autistic individuals quickly get mixed up or fail to pick up cues that other individuals might notice. Their disabilities make it easy to fail to understand other people’s body language, eye contact, and gestures. The whole idea behind social stories is that they were developed with the aim of helping children with disability know how to act whenever they are in social settings, as it is something they often struggle with. I would use social settings in the classroom as it would help children with disability understand social setting and what happens in such settings. I believe that social stories are helpful as they go a long way in making children feel understood and comfortable. It makes it easier for autistic children to blend in with other children. Disabilities tend to make some children been alienated but social stories will help address this adversity as it makes it easier for them. If such benefits come with incorporating social stories in the classroom, then I would not hesitate to put them to use.

I am of the opinion that social stories are effective as they also help children pick up new skills. By listening to social stories, children are able to express themselves better and think better. Social stories tend to be most useful to children with autism, but they have proved helpful in explaining any changes that take place in the child’s environment. The explanation is that it is easier for children with disability to relate to their environment when they relate it to a narrative that has been told to them. Children find it easy to relate to stories and narratives, which makes it the perfect entry for them to feel comfortable in social situations.

References

Stathopoulou, A., Loukeris, D., Karabatzaki, Z., Politi, E., Salapata, Y., & Drigas, A. (2020). Evaluation of mobile apps effectiveness in children with autism social training via digital social stories.