Learning social skills with 2D animated social stories for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are a group of neuro‐developmental disorders caused by brain abnormalities which results in impaired social skills. There are five variants of the spectrum: Asperger Syndrome, Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified, Autistic Disorders, Rett’s Syndrome and Childhood Disintegrative Disorders. These broad variants produce a wide variety of symptoms among children with ASD, where each child with ASD will have his own pattern of autism; however, all children with ASD will share the same deficits in the areas of social skills which include social interaction, verbal and non-verbal communication and unusual behavior/interest. Research on treatment in helping children with ASD to improve social skills is growing as the cases of children diagnosed with ASD are on the rise. Social Story™ is one of the proven methods of treatment in helping children with ASD to learn social skills. However, the current presentation format of Social Story™ has not been attractive and it requires intensive teacher‐student interaction for the full benefit of social skills acquisition. Numerous studies have proved that children with ASD are motivated and have a better understanding from reading or visual illustration learning rather than learning through spoken instructions. Results from studies have also discovered that the computer is attractive and engaging for children with ASD, as it offers much benefit to them. It has been said that learning is most effectual when motivated, thus, the purpose of this study is to discover a learning tool that children with ASD will be motivated to use on their own, and it is achievable by combining elements that they are interested in. This research focuses on the combination of Social Story™, 2D animation, and the computer as a medium of presentation to present an interactive pedagogical tool for children with ASD to learn social skills. This combination is anticipated to be an effective tool in teaching social skills to children with ASD, as they are naturally drawn to computers and visual cues, combined with the fact that Social Story™ has been effective in changing the social behavior of children with ASD. The prototype titled ‘I-Learn Social Story’ has been developed and evaluated on thirty children with ASD in a special school located in Kuching, Sarawak. A preliminary study has been conducted on three children with ASD prior to this final evaluation to ensure that the final prototype functions are properly based on the children’s needs. The method used in the evaluation study is the quantitative method, specifically single subject design, which is one type of experimental design. Results of the experimental study reveal that the prototype is effective in changing the participants’ social behavior and in improving their social skills. There are significant improvements in the appropriate social behavior, decrease in the inappropriate social behavior, and increase in the number of social interactions made by the participants. Thus, this study has contributed to the emergent research of treatment for children with ASD in social skills learning. The result of this study is important as we have discovered a novel method of treatment that can be used effectively in assisting children with ASD to improve their main deficit, social skills.