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Robotic Intervention Program for Enhancement of Social Engagement among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Eva Yin-han Chung
Eva Yin-han Chung
Eva Yin-han Chung
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This study investigated the effectiveness of a robotic intervention in enhancing the social engagement of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The clinical use of social or interactive robots is promising for enhancing the social skills of children with ASD. Teaching and intervention programs using humanoid robots for children with ASD are developing rapidly. In this study, a repeated-measures design was adopted to test the treatment effectiveness of a robotic intervention program; 14 students with ASD were recruited in this study. An individual-based social skills training program using the NAO robot was administered to each participant. Video recording was performed throughout the course of training. Systematic video analysis was conducted for the pre-intervention, mid-intervention, end of intervention and maintenance phases regarding 3 variables: frequency of eye contact, duration of eye contact, and frequency of verbal initiation. One-way analysis of variance for repeated measures was employed to demonstrate that the robotic intervention program significantly enhanced the eye contact (both frequency and duration) and verbal initiation of children with ASD. The robot served as a role model and facilitating agent to enable a therapeutic transaction between the child, environment, and activities to elicit self-initiated changes in the children with ASD.
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Robotic Intervention Program for Enhancement of Social
Engagement among Children with Autism
Spectrum Disorder
Eva Yin-han Chung
1
Published online: 19 December 2018
#Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract
This study investigated the effectiveness of a robotic intervention in enhancing the
social engagement of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The clinical use of
social or interactive robots is promising for enhancing the social skills of children with
ASD. Teaching and intervention programs using humanoid robots for children with
ASD are developing rapidly. In this study, a repeated-measures design was adopted to
test the treatment effectiveness of a robotic intervention program; 14 students with ASD
were recruited in this study. An individual-based social skills training program using
the NAO robot was administered to each participant. Video recording was performed
throughout the course of training. Systematic video analysis was conducted for the pre-
intervention, mid-intervention, end of intervention and maintenance phases regarding 3
variables: frequency of eye contact, duration of eye contact, and frequency of verbal
initiation. One-way analysis of variance for repeated measures was employed to
demonstrate that the robotic intervention program significantly enhanced the eye
contact (both frequency and duration) and verbal initiation of children with ASD.
The robot served as a role model and facilitating agent to enable a therapeutic
transaction between the child, environment, and activities to elicit self-initiated changes
in the children with ASD.
Keywords Human robotic interaction .Robotics .ASD .Social engagement
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate deficits in social communi-
cation and social interaction across contexts. Children with ASD also exhibit restricted and
repetitive patterns of behavior and interests (American Psychiatric Association 2013).
Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities (2019) 31:419–434
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-018-9651-8
*Eva Yin-han Chung
eyhchung@yahoo.com.hk
1
Department of Special Education and Counseling, The Education University of Hong Kong, 10 Lo
Ping Road, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... After, we divided the five studies according to their ICF criteria in order to reduce their heterogeneity. For the analysis of the (Yun et al., 2017;Ali et al., 2019;Chung, 2019) (So et al., 2019a;Costa et al., 2018;Ahmad et al., 2017) EEG for attentiveness Ali et al., 2019) Fixation time (Yoshikawa et al., 2019;Wan et al., 2019) (Ahmad et al., 2017) Gaze transitions Taheri et al., 2018;Aryania et al., 2020) Correct gazing (Javed et al., 2019;Billing et al., 2020;Sperati et al., 2020) (Javed et al., 2020) Attention Head movement (Del Coco et al., 2018;Zheng et al., 2016;Billing et al., 2020) (Jain et al., 2020) Number of trials to hit target (Zheng et al., , 2020 Number of prompts Nie et al., 2018;Zheng et al., 2020) Time between cue and child response (Ramírez-Duque et al., 2020) Early Social Communication Scale (Carlson et al., 2018;Nie et al., 2018;So et al., 2020) Motor Number of times of complete imitation Imitation accuracy (Costa et al., 2018;Javed et al., 2018;Taheri et al., 2018 Number of prompts to follow the robot (Petric et al., 2017;Beer et al., 2016) (imitation/ Time differences between robot's movement and child movement (Aryania et al., 2020) gestures) Recognition of gestures (So et al., 2018a(So et al., , 2019b Dynamic time warping costs between gestures done (Wijayasinghe et al., 2016) Ranking in emotion recognition tasks (Bharatharaj et al., 2017c;Chevalier et al., 2017aChevalier et al., ) (alvador et al., 2016 Emotional Test of Emotion Comprehension (Marino et al., 2020) Expression Emotional Lexicon test (Marino et al., 2020) Recognition Heart rate (Giannopulu et al., 2018;Yun et al., 2016;Giannopulu et al., 2020) Heart rate variability (Silva et al., 2019) Emotional feeling report (Giannopulu et al., 2018;Yun et al., 2016;Giannopulu et al., 2020) treatment effects, we used the standardised mean difference with 95% confidence interval. ...
... However, some studies design triadic interactions between the robot, the ASD patient and another agent, actively participating in the therapy protocol. This third agent can be either the therapist, the researcher or the parent (triadic human) (Chung, 2019;Silva et al., 2019;Taheri et al., 2019;Scassellati et al., 2018;Albo-Canals et al., 2018;Taheri et al., 2018;Golestan et al., 2017;Srinivasan Fig. 6 Types of more common interactions Yun et al., 2016;Zaraki et al., 2020;Attawibulkul et al., 2019;Cervera et al., 2019;Sperati et al., 2020). However, in very few studies, the other agent is another robot (triadic robot) So et al., 2019a;Mehmood et al., 2019;Chevalier et al., 2017a;So et al., 2020). ...
... Moreover, from less to more recent analysed works, we found a tendency to increase the frequency of the sessions. Most of the contemporary studies still plan sessions once a week or once every 2 weeks (Fig. 9c) (Chung, 2019;Yun et al., 2017;Moorthy and Pugazhenthi, 2016;Beer et al., 2016;Zheng et al., 2020;Marino et al., 2020;Carlson et al., 2018;Wong et al., 2016;Hudson and Lewis, 2020). However, giving the evidence that a prolonged and repeated exposure to given stimuli provides higher chances of learning and a potentially larger number of learnt skills, experimenters have started to increase frequency to twice or more times per week (Nuovo et al., 2018;Clabaugh et al., 2019;Kumazaki et al., 2019a;So et al., 2019b;Saadatzi et al., 2018;Scassellati et al., 2018;Albo-Canals et al., 2018;Bharatharaj et al., 2017a, c;Boccanfuso et al., 2017;Choi et al., 2016;Srinivasan et al., 2016;Han et al., 2016;Yun et al., 2016;Marino et al., 2020;Fuglerud and Solheim, 2018;Schadenberg et al., 2020;Telisheva et al., 2019;Carlson et al., 2018;So et al., 2018a, b). ...
Applications of Robotics for Autism Spectrum Disorder: a Scoping Review
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Robotic therapies are receiving growing interest in the autism field, especially for the improvement of social skills of children, enhancing traditional human interventions. In this work, we conduct a scoping review of the literature in robotics for autism, providing the largest review on this field from the last five years. Our work underlines the need to better characterize participants and to increase the sample size. It is also important to develop homogeneous training protocols to analyse and compare the results. Nevertheless, 7 out of the 10 Randomized control trials reported a significant impact of robotic therapy. Overall, robot autonomy, adaptability and personalization as well as more standardized outcome measures were pointed as the most critical issues to address in future research.
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... their engagement with robotic content [53]. Interacting with robots has also been found to be positively correlated with autistic children's verbal expression [21,29,34] and eye contact [21,23], likely due to an increase in engagement. ...
... their engagement with robotic content [53]. Interacting with robots has also been found to be positively correlated with autistic children's verbal expression [21,29,34] and eye contact [21,23], likely due to an increase in engagement. ...
... Therapy is often approached with a focus on either the outer cycle of macro-interactions between stakeholders [6,51] or the inner cycle of therapeutic interventions [21,21,23,34]. However, these single-cycle perspectives miss a key piece of the story. ...
Beyond the Session: Centering Teleoperators in Socially Assistive Robot-Child Interactions Reveals the Bigger Picture
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  • Oct 2023
Socially assistive robots play an effective role in children’s therapy and education. Robots engage children and provide interaction that is free of the potential judgment of human peers and adults. Research in socially assistive robots for children generally focuses on therapeutic and educational outcomes for those children, informed by a vision of autonomous robots. This perspective ignores therapists and educators, who operate these robots in practice. Through nine interviews with individuals who have used robots to deliver socially assistive services to neurodivergent children, we (1) define a dual-cycle model of therapy that helps capture the domain expert view of therapy, (2) identify six core themes of teleoperator needs and patterns across these themes, (3) provide high-level guidelines and detailed recommendations for designing teleoperated socially assistive robot systems, and (4) outline a vision of robot-assisted therapy informed by these guidelines and recommendations that centers teleoperators of socially assistive robots in practice.
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... The programme included the teaching of two-way communication, basic emotions, imitation, and reciprocal responses. Throughout the 12 sessions, the participants were involved in the following activities: structured interactive social games, structured story-based activities, and structured singing/dancing activities (Chung, 2018) (Table 1). ...
... This may imply that robotic intervention is the most appropriate form of training to enhance the social communication and behaviour of children with ASD. Robotic intervention has been shown to enhance joint attention (Robins et al., 2018), motivation (Dautenhahn & Werry, 2004), and social skills (Chung, 2018) in children with ASD. ...
Effectiveness of Robotic Intervention on Improving Social Development and Participation of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder – A Randomised Controlled Trial
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2024
  • J AUTISM DEV DISORD
Evidence-based robotic intervention programmes for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been limited. As yet, there is insufficient evidence to inform therapists, teachers, and service providers on effectiveness of robotic intervention to enhance social development and participation of children with ASD in a real context. This study used a randomised controlled trial to test the efficacy of robotic intervention programmes in enhancing the social development and participation of children with ASD. 60 children with ASD were included. The participants were randomly assigned to the following groups: (1) robotic intervention programme (n = 20), (2) human-instructed programme (n = 20), and (3) control group (n = 20). Both the performance-based behavioural change in social communication and parent-reported change in social responsiveness were evaluated. The participants in the robotic intervention group demonstrated statistically significant changes in both the performance-based assessment and parent-reported change in social participation. Significant differences were found in the communication and reciprocal social interactions scores between the experimental group and the control and comparison groups in the performance-based assessment (p < 0.01). The effectiveness of robotic intervention programme to enhance the social communication and participation was confirmed. Future studies may also consider adding a maintenance phase to document how the effects of the intervention carry over to the participants over a longer period. (Clinical trial number: NCT04879303; Date of registration: 10 May 2021).
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... The clinical use of social or interactive robots appears to be promising for improving the social skills of children with ASD. Humanoid robot-assisted teaching and intervention programs for children with ASD are rapidly evolving [6]. ...
... The clinical use of social or interactive robots appears to be promising for improving the social skills of children with ASD. Humanoid robot-assisted teaching and intervention programs for children with ASD are rapidly evolving [6]. Table 2, below, summarizes the article classification by robot type. ...
Assessing the Potential of Robotics Technology for Enhancing Educational for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Article
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  • Jul 2023
Robotics technology has been increasingly used as an educational and intervention tool for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, there remain research issues and challenges that need to be addressed to fully realize the potential benefits of robot-assisted therapy. This systematic review categorizes and summarizes the literature related to robot educational/training interventions and provides a conceptual framework for collecting and classifying these articles. The challenges identified in this review are classified into four levels: robot-level, algorithm-level, experimental-research-level, and application-level challenges. The review highlights possible future research directions and offers crucial insights for researchers interested in using robots in therapy. The most relevant findings suggest that robot-assisted therapy has the potential to improve social interaction, communication, and emotional regulation skills in children with ASD. Addressing these challenges and seeking new research avenues will be critical to advancing the field of robot-assisted therapy and improving outcomes for children with ASD. This study serves as a roadmap for future research in this important area.
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... De los dos estudios que utilizan robots en las intervenciones, uno de ellos sí obtiene resultados favorecedores, ya que se observa un aumento de la frecuencia de contacto visual, duración del contacto visual y la frecuencia de iniciación verbal entre los niños con TEA (Chung, 2019). Por otra parte, en el estudio de David et al. (2020) no se encontraron diferencias significativas entre la intervención con robot y la intervención con instructor humano. ...
Intervenciones eficaces para la mejora de las habilidades sociales en personas con trastorno del espectro autista de alto funcionamiento: una revisión sistemática
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  • Sep 2023
INTRODUCCIÓN. La intervención centrada en las habilidades sociales en personas con autismo, motivada en parte por la introducción del uso de dispositivos electrónicos, es un tema de interés en los últimos años Por ello, el presente trabajo se ha centrado en la revisión de las intervenciones más recientes llevadas a cabo en personas con trastorno del espectro autista para la mejora de sus habilidades sociales, con el objetivo de dar a conocer su eficacia y fomentar la creación de más programas de este tipo. MÉTODO. Para ello se realizó una revisión sistemática siguiendo el método PRISMA (Page, 2021), utilizando para ello las bases de datos Scopus y Web of Science. La estrategia de búsqueda se basó en una combinación de términos de búsqueda, filtros y criterios de inclusión específicos. RESULTADOS. Finalmente, tras la revisión, se seleccionó un total de 12 artículos para su análisis. Se codificaron los resultados atendiendo a: referencia, tipo de intervención, tamaño de la muestra, edad media de la muestra, número de sesiones y duración, instrumento de evaluación y los principales resultados encontrados. Entre las diferentes intervenciones para mejorar las habilidades sociales en personas con trastorno del espectro autista se encuentran: el uso del robot humanoide Nao, la realidad aumentada para recrear entornos virtuales de socialización, el modelado mediante vídeo, los entrenamientos grupales de habilidades sociales mediante instrucciones, con grupos de iguales, maestros, padres, y la realización de actividades con juegos de construcciones. CONCLUSIONES. Los resultados concluyeron que las técnicas utilizadas en las intervenciones analizadas muestran resultados positivos, aunque existen varias deficiencias metodológicas en la forma en que se llevan a cabo. Dado que las intervenciones han resultado eficaces a corto plazo, se deben realizar estudios centrados a medio y largo plazo.
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... Such potential for the AI's desirability over humans, especially humans with certain characteristics is highlighted in Chung's (2019) statement, "humans are essentially alone in the world, [yet] they long to be connected with others" (p. 430), which was used to open the research space for a robot to teach social skills to children. ...
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Physical Robots in Education: A Systematic Review Based on the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge Framework
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Driven by the wave of artificial intelligence, the educational practice and application of robots have become increasingly common. Despite extensive coverage in the literature on various aspects of educational robots, there are still unexplored avenues, particularly regarding robotic support, robotic personality, and challenges in their applications. This study presented a systematic review of high-quality empirical research on the use of physical robots in educational settings. A total of 92 relevant papers from the Web of Science database were analyzed. Employing the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) framework, we investigated research questions across seven components, including the learning domain, teaching strategy, robot types, learning results, problems with using robots, robotic support, and robotic personality. The findings revealed that robots are most prevalently employed in language learning applications. When opting for teaching strategies, educators tend to favor those that incorporate physical interaction. Concurrently, humanoid robots emerge as the preferred choice among many. These robots, in human–robot interaction scenarios, often exhibit an agreeable personality. In terms of evaluating learning results, cognitive aspects like thinking, creativity, self-regulation, and inquiry ability are especially emphasized. Such results are frequently influenced by the informational and emotional support provided by robots. Nonetheless, challenges encountered by teachers, learners, and robots in this process are not to be overlooked. The findings of this study contributed to future applications of robotics in education.
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Social Robots: A Promising Tool to Support People with Autism. A Systematic Review of Recent Research and Critical Analysis from the Clinical Perspective
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In the past decade, interdisciplinary research has revealed the potential benefits of using social robots in the care of individuals with autism. There is a growing interest in integrating social robots into clinical practice. However, while significant efforts have been made to develop and test the technical aspects, clinical validation and implementation lag behind. This article presents a systematic literature review from a clinical perspective, focusing on articles that demonstrate clinical relevance through experimental studies. These studies are analysed and critically discussed in terms of their integration into healthcare and care practices. The goal is to assist healthcare professionals in identifying opportunities and limitations in their practice and to promote further interdisciplinary cooperation.
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Analysis of the Application of the Bee-Bot Robot for the Development of Social Reciprocity Skills in Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder
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Increasingly, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are being used as a resource in the teaching–learning process of students with special educational needs. Specifically, the needs of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) seem to align perfectly with ICT, especially with Pedagogical Robotics, as it enables the creation of predictable and controllable environments. For this reason, the main aim of this research has been to apply the Bee-Bot robot to improve the social-emotional reciprocity responses of students with ASD. Therefore, a quantitative research based on a quasi-experimental methodology and a pre-test-post-test design has been developed. The sample of participants was composed by 22 children with ASD. In this sense, the experimental group was composed by 11 students who developed the activities through the mediation of the Bee-Bot robot. While the control group was composed by 11 other students who developed non-robotics mediated activities. An ad hoc instrument consisting of 44 items divided into three dimensions, related to the communication and social interaction area, was used. Each participant participated in ten individual sessions lasting fifteen minutes. The results indicate improvements in the post-test because of the use of robotics as a mediating learning tool. For example, there are improvements in items 1 and 2 related to attention with p values less than 0.05, as well as improvements in items 13, 15 and 16 related to the identification and discrimination of emotions. Furthermore, the results of the intra-group analysis show, on the one hand, significant differences on the part of the control group in item 13, related to emotion identification and discrimination skills. On the other hand, in the case of the experimental group, the number of items in which there are significant differences is greater. Specifically, participants in the experimental group show significant differences in items related to attention, basic social skills, conversational skills and emotion identification skills. In conclusion, the Bee-Bot robot, accompanied by a pedagogical programme, has potential for learning social-emotional reciprocity skills in these students.
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Social skills training with children: Responsiveness to modeling and coaching as a function of peer orientation
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  • Dec 1980
40 socially isolated children selected from 14 3rd- and 4th-grade classrooms were exposed to 1 of 4 social skills training conditions: coaching, modeling, mixed abbreviated modeling and coaching, and control. Social isolation was defined as low scores received from same-sex peers on 2 sociometric rating scales that measured how much children like to play and work with each other. Ss were also characterized as being peer-oriented or non-peer-oriented on the basis of the Peer Preference Test. Dependent measures consisted of 2 sociometric rating scales, 3 peer nomination measures, and 4 categories of behavioral observations (initiating and receiving positive and negative peer interaction). Generally speaking, coaching and modeling were equivalent procedures for teaching social skills to Ss, as measured by both sociometric and behavioral indices. The abbreviated combination of coaching and modeling did not add to the effects achieved by coaching or modeling in isolation. Also, the peer orientation factor proved to be only a relatively weak modulator of responsiveness to social skills training. The selection of appropriate outcome measures in social skills training research is discussed. (39 ref)
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This article presents a novel robotic partner which children can teach handwriting. The system relies on the learning by teaching paradigm to build an interaction, so as to stimulate meta-cognition, empathy and increased self-esteem in the child user. We hypothesise that use of a humanoid robot in such a system could not just engage an unmotivated student, but could also present the opportunity for children to experience physically-induced benefits encountered during human-led handwriting interventions, such as motor mimicry. By leveraging simulated handwriting on a synchronised tablet display, a NAO humanoid robot with limited fine motor capabilities has been configured as a suitably embodied handwriting partner. Statistical shape models derived from principal component analysis of a dataset of adult-written letter trajectories allow the robot to draw purposefully deformed letters. By incorporating feedback from user demonstrations, the system is then able to learn the optimal parameters for the appropriate shape models. Preliminary in situ studies have been conducted with primary school classes to obtain insight into children's use of the novel system. Children aged 6-8 successfully engaged with the robot and improved its writing to a level which they were satisfied with. The validation of the interaction represents a significant step towards an innovative use for robotics which addresses a widespread and socially meaningful challenge in education.
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The Person-Environment-Occupation Model: A Transactive Approach to Occupational Performance
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  • Apr 1996
Occupational therapy theory, practice and research has increasingly emphasized the transactional relationship between person, environment and occupation. Occupational performance results from the dynamic relationship between people, their occupations and roles, and the environments in which they live, work and play. There have, however, been few models of practice in the occupational therapy literature which discuss the theoretical and clinical applications of person-environment interaction. This paper proposes a Person-Environment-Occupation Model of occupational performance which builds on concepts from the Occupational Therapy Guidelines for Client Centered Practice and from environment-behaviour theories. The model describes interactions between person, occupation and environment, outlines major concepts and assumptions, and is applied to a practice situation.
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Using a Humanoid Robot to Elicit Body Awareness and Appropriate Physical Interaction in Children with Autism
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  • Apr 2014
In this article we describe a human–robot interaction study, focusing on tactile aspects of interaction, in which children with autism interacted with the child-like humanoid robot KASPAR. KASPAR was equipped with touch sensors in order to be able to distinguish gentle from harsh touch, and to respond accordingly. The study investigated a novel scenario for robot-assisted play, with the goal to increase body awareness of children with autism spectrum condition (hereafter ASC) by teaching them how to identify human body parts, and to promote a triadic relationship between the child, the robot and the experimenter. Data obtained from the video analysis of the experimental sessions showed that children treated KASPAR as an object of shared attention with the experimenter, and performed more gentle touches on the robot along the sessions. The children also learned to identify body parts. The study showed the potential that teaching children with autism about body parts and appropriate physical interaction using a humanoid robot has, and highlighted the issues of scenario development, data collection and data analysis that will inform future studies.
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Teaching Eye Contact to Children with Autism: A Conceptual Analysis and Single Case Study
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  • May 2013
Eye contact occurs very early in development and serves many functions for the young child. It has been implicated in the development of social, cognitive, and language skills. A substantial number of children with autism fail to develop this important skill and therefore experimenters with both developmental and behavior analytic perspectives have researched methods to teach eye contact. However, only a few researchers have recently attempted to condition the response of the communication partner as a reinforcer for social behavior and thereby arrange the conditions under which typical children develop social responses. The purpose of this case study was to extend the analysis of typical development of social skills to the teaching of eye contact as a language pragmatic skill to a child with autism. Data from a single case study of a child with autism are provided.
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How children with autism spectrum disorder behave and explore the 4-dimensional (spatial 3D + time) environment during a joint attention induction task with a robot
Article
Full-text available
  • Jul 2014
  • RES AUTISM SPECT DIS
We aimed to compare, during a joint attention (JA) elicitation task, how children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and children with typical development (TD) behave and explore their 4 dimensional (meaning spatial 3D + time) when interacting with a human or with a robotic agent. We built a system that employed a Nao robot and a perception system based on a RGB-D sensor (Kinect) to capture social engagement cues. A JA induction experiment was performed in which children with ASD (N = 16) and matched TD children (N = 16) had a 3-min interaction with the robot or with a therapist. Nao induced JA by gazing; by gazing and pointing; and by gazing, pointing and vocalizing at pictures. Both groups of children performed well with the therapist. However, with Nao, both groups had lower JA scores, and the children with ASD had a significantly lower score than the TD children. We found that (i) multimodal JA induction was more efficient in both groups; (ii) the 3D spatial world gaze exploration showed less accuracy; and (iii) the trunk position in ASD showed less stability in the 4 dimensions compared to TD controls. We conclude that, in ASD, JA skill depends on the interaction partner, and implies a higher motor and cognitive cost.
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Can NAO Robot Improve Eye-Gaze Attention of Children with High Functioning Autism?
Conference Paper
Full-text available
  • Sep 2013
Presents the results of a preliminary study on understanding how humanoid robots can successfully improve social and communication skills among children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Children with ASD experience deficits in appropriate verbal and nonverbal communication skills including motor control, emotional facial expressions, eye-gaze attention, and joint attention. Studies have shown that positive feedback from the robot on the participants' performance is an effective way to encourage children with ASD to communicate more. Other studies have also examined the use of affect recognition based on psycho physiological responses to modify the behaviors during a robotic game. However, there is limited information on the utility of humanoid robots' positive.
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Social Stories to Increase Verbal Initiation in Children With Autism and Asperger’s Disorder
Article
  • Sep 2010
Individuals with autism spectrum disorders experience pervasive social and communication skill deficits. One of the most popular treatment recommendations to address these deficits is the use of social stories. Although social stories are beneficial at reducing many disruptive behaviors, empirical evidence for their use to increase social and communication behaviors is limited. The present study, conducted in a natural setting, investigated the use of social stories to increase the prosocial behaviors of verbal initiations and contingent responses in students with either autism or Asperger's disorder. Results suggested that the efficaciousness of this widely accepted intervention is questionable and in need of further research.
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