Ho Sze Hwee Eveleen - Group A

Case 1

(i) the intervention - Social stories and visual supports
“A Social Story is a short, simple story written from the perspective of the child that delivers instruction on appropriate social behavior” (Fisher & Haufe, 2009 as cited in Crozier & Tincani, 2005). "They focus on describing and explaining the cues in that situation as well as teaching appropriate responses" (Fisher & Haufe, 2009 as cited in Scattone, Tingstrom & Wilczynski, 2006). "Social Stories are effective in increasing pro-social behaviors such as initiating social activity and increasing flexibility during social activities" (Fisher & Theresa, 2009 as cited in Feinberg, 2001). “A visually cued instruction involves the use of pictographic and written language as instructional supports in both structured and natural learning contexts” (Fisher & Haufe, 2009 as cited in Quill, 1995). Visual supports help children who have difficulty in reading nonverbal cues to reduce stress and anxiety as well as help them understand what they are expected to do.

The purpose of this action research project was to improve the social skills of
eight preschool students through the use of Social Stories to create a more positive learning environment. It was conducted with children who had speech and language delays and had problems with turn-taking and sharing materials and toys with their peers. Two social stories were created to teach turn-taking and sharing and visual supports were introduced and taught how it can be utilized.

(ii) its effectiveness (as reported in the journal article)
In the research, the Parent Social Skills Rating Scale and the Teacher Social Skills Rating Scale
was used to determine the problem behviours.

The Sharing Checklist and the Turn-Taking Checklist was used "at the end of each week to document the students ability to demonstrate the targeted social skill, and also how much
prompting and support was needed during teacher directed peer group activities" (Fisher & Haufe, 2009).

Journal Reflection Template for Sharing and Turn-Taking was used "to document progress
and monitor the students’ ability to take turns and share toys and materials with their
peers during a structured teaching time" (Fisher & Haufe, 2009)

At the end of the research, the teachers sent the Parent Social Skills Rating Scale back to the parents to complete. The Teacher Social Skills Rating Scale was also completed by the teachers.

The research findings found that the use of social stories and visual supports proved to be effective in teaching the children turn-taking and sharing of materials and toys with their peers. They were able to ask for what they wanted as well as to say what they wanted instead of acting on impulse through action.

(iii) your personal evaluation how the child will benefit from this intervention
I strongly believe that Annie would benefit from the use of social stories and visual supports as she would be able to see the appropriate behaviour modeled in the story and the visual cues would help her understand what she is expected to do.

Having the know-how to express herself through words instead of actions would prevent her from biting her friends when she gets excited or angry. Her classmates would not feel so afraid of her and therefore be more likely to befriend her without fear of getting hurt. This would in turn increase her self-esteem about her facial deformity. She would feel more accepted without having to worry about looking different from her classmates. Her feelings of shyness would also disappear when she has more interactions with her classmates.
Social stories will also gradually further help her in expressing her thoughts or feelings when her classmates tease or make fun of her. She would be able to verbalize her feelings and tell them that it hurts when they make fun of her or that she feels sad when they tease her because of facial deformity.

(iv) your suggestions how you can make adjustments to cater to the needs of the
child and to facilitate integration of the child / the intervention activity into
your classroom.
Social stories need to designed with the purpose of helping the individual with the problem behaviour. In Annie's case, perhaps the social story needs to be on how to display her emotions through verbalization due to her biting incidences in class. For example, how to react to excitement, anger and sadness. Also providing visual cues would help her to react to nonverbal cues. She can also use them in the beginning to show her teachers and classmates her feelings when she is unable to verbalize her feelings.

Teachers are a major influence in children's lives and therefore I should be more aware that Annie is learning from me hence I should model the specific behaviours that I want her to learn. Giving her encouragement and praise would encourage her to continue trying and learning as well as boost her self-confidence and self-esteem. Informing her classmates of her difficulty in speech would help them to be more aware of why she looks and speaks differently. They would understand and therefore be more careful in the things that they say. Assigning a buddy to her would allow her to interact with someone on a daily basis and also help her to practice speaking.

Reference:
Fisher, K., & Haufe, T. (2009, May 1). Developing Social Skills in Children Who Have Disabilities through the Use of Social Stories and Visual Supports. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED504818) Retrieved September 6, 2009, from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/43/dc/73.pdf