International Journal of Child Development and Mental Health (Dec 2020)
Designing the Social Stories for Reducing Undesirable Eating Behavior Among People with Autism : A Case Study
Abstract
This study aimed to design a Social Story, based on Gray, that reduces undesirable eating behaviours among individuals with autism and compare their behaviours before and after the intervention. It was conducted in three subjects with autism, using the ABAB reversal single-subject design. Undesirable eating behaviours were observed and then they were used to developed Social Story in line with Gray’s three steps. The tools underwent quality testing in both the content validity and the pilot implementation to check the language and understanding in an individual with autism who was similar to the subjects. The data was then analysed using descriptive statistics. The developed Social Story consisted of five pages, containing five images and five sentences. After using the developed Social Story, the reduction of undesirable eating behaviours occured in Case 1, 2 and 3 in all four phases of the study. In Phase 1, in the baseline data was gathered, the average occurrences of the behaviours were 13.50%, 11.83% and 10.00%, respectively. Then, in Phase 2, the first treatment phase (B1), the average occurrences were 10.83%, 8.54% and 7.83% respectively. Then, in Phase 3, the intervention withdrawal, they were 9.42%, 5.92% and 8.33% respectively. In Phase 4, the second treatment phase, the percentages reduced to 7.42, 5.58 and 6.30, respectively. This study proves that the designed Social Story was effective in reducing undesirable eating behaviours in people with autism and should be adapted and applied to others with the same behaviours as appropriate. Further studies can be done on the effectiveness of Social Story in supporting people with autism in other aspects such as enhancing social skills and interaction, reducing other undesirable behaviours or even developing Social Story e-books.
