Is social Story™ an evidence-based practice? A meta-analysis and comprehensive descriptive analysis study

Abstract

Introduction: Debates about the evidence-base for social stories (TM) (SSs) have been ongoing and meta-analysis studies show that SSs are not an evidence-based practice.Method: We conducted a descriptive and meta-analysis research by evaluating studies in which SSs were used both to increase appropriate behaviors and decrease inappropriate behaviors published until June 2020. We reviewed seven studies, which used single-case designs and published in internationally peer-reviewed journals and also met criteria for quality indicators for single-subject designs. We calculated the effect sizes of these seven studies by using the improvement rate difference (IRD).Findings: The results of our study show that the effect sizes of the included studies are large and SSs meet 5-3-20 rule by scarcely. The findings of our study also demonstrate that dependent variables of research examined the effectiveness of social story were increasing appropriate behaviors. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of the participants of the research were primary school age children and had autism spectrum disorders diagnosis.Discussion: Our study demonstrate that social story is an evidence-based practice. However, future research is required to examine the effectiveness of social story on individuals with different developmental disabilites, in different age groups. Besides, there is still a need for qualified research to strengthen the evidence-base of SSs.