MADA Course blog: April 2008

For my collaborative unit I am researching the benefits of using flash based animated social stories for ASD children. When I figure it out I will place a power point file giving an outline of the project and the conclusions drawn from this study.

Most of this unit is paper and researched based, though to add weight to my project and considerations I am adding a number of videos from Youtube. These represent the general quality and diversity of videos with a social story base. There are any number of sites and DVD's offering animated stories, however these do not cover the criteria of a social story - the fact of educating a child on social behaviour through animation.

Carole Gray www.thegraycenter.org/ conceived of Social Stories and first developed them for use with children with ASD, the approach has also been successful with children, adolescents, and adults with ASD and other social and communication delays and differences, as well as individuals developing normally.

A Social Story™ describes a situation, skill, or concept in terms of relevant social cues, perspectives, and common responses in a specifically defined style and format. The goal of a Social Story™ is to share accurate social information in a patient and reassuring manner that is easily understood by its audience. Half of all Social Stories™ developed should affirm something that an individual does well. Although the goal of a Story™ should never be to change the individual’s behavior, that individual’s improved understanding of events and expectations may lead to more effective responses.

The stories produced have almost entirely been print based with some 'live' action video stories recently produced. I have scoured the net for animated or Flash based social stories and have found very few, some I have placed below for you to view. Most of these are made by autistics.

The bees Knees