GrAPPling With How to Teach Social Skills? Try Tapping Into Digital Technology

Abstract

Socially appropriate behavior is required for a child to function successfully in home, recreational, community, and school settings. Students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may require specialized interventions focusing on social skill remediation. One such intervention is a social narrative, used to help students with ASD acknowledge other people's feelings, thereby increasing and improving appropriate social interactions with peers. A social narrative uses photographs, written narrative, and other graphics to describe and illustrate a target behavior that is socially appropriate. Social narratives are easy and cost effective to create and can be produced in hard copy or digitally. This article will discuss technology features currently available for creation of a social narrative, benefits of digital social narratives, as well as a “how-to” guide.