A Pilot Randomised Control Trial of Digitally-Mediated Social Stories for Children on the Autism Spectrum

Hanrahan et al. (2020) tested digital Social Stories on tablets. They compared the digital story to a poem control group.

Kids with autism used the tablet stories. The team tracked behavior changes for six weeks.

The digital Social Stories helped kids behave better. The gains stayed strong six weeks later.

The poem group showed no such change.

Karkhaneh et al. (2010) reviewed paper Social Stories. Only six trials existed and long-term data were thin. Hanrahan moves the same idea onto tablets and adds follow-up data.

Kokina et al. (2010) meta-analysis found tiny effects for paper stories. Hanrahan’s digital boost suggests screen delivery may out-do paper.

Lde Leeuw et al. (2024) let parents and autistic youth run the same app. They also saw gains, showing the tool works without a researcher in the room.

Camilleri et al. (2024) mined 856 app users. Younger verbal kids and gender-diverse youth gained most. Hanrahan’s pilot now looks like the first proof for that bigger pattern.

You can load Social Stories onto any tablet and hand it to the learner. The gains stick for at least six weeks, so you don’t need to re-print or laminate. If parents ask for homework, show them LJ’s paper—parents can run the same program at home with little training. Start with younger or more verbal kids first; the big-data study says they respond best.