Digital Social Stories for Teaching Earthquake Safety Skills to Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder.
A simple tablet social story taught three autistic students to Drop, Cover, and Hold On and evacuate during real earthquake drills.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Ulaşman et al. (2025) used a tablet app to teach earthquake safety to three autistic students. The app showed short digital social stories about Drop, Cover, and Hold On plus safe evacuation.
Researchers ran a multiple-baseline design across the students. They measured correct steps during real school drills before, during, and after the story lessons.
What they found
All three students quickly learned the full drill sequence. They used the skills in new classrooms and still did them weeks later.
No extra prompts or rewards were needed after the stories. The tablet alone taught the safety chain.
How this fits with other research
Ghanouni et al. (2019) built seventy-five VR social stories for home, school, and community. Their Delphi work shows the content Seçil used was already judged valid by parents and clinicians.
Oğur et al. (2025) also taught safety skills to autistic learners with video plus BST. Both studies got fast, large gains, but Oğur added live coaching while Seçil used only the digital story.
Metoyer et al. (2020) trained caregivers with BST and simulation. Seçil flips the lens: students, not adults, learn the safety moves, and the medium is a story app instead of hands-on rehearsal.
Why it matters
You can put earthquake drills on a tablet and skip extra staff time. The story gives clear pictures, text, and sequence, so students with autism learn the life-saving chain without noisy simulations or tangible rewards. Try it for any safety routine you teach: fire, lockdown, or street crossing. One free app may do the job.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
PURPOSE: This study evaluates digital social stories' effectiveness in helping individuals with autism spectrum disorder acquire, generalize, and maintain earthquake safety skills. METHODS: Participants were three students with autism spectrum disorder in a primary school special education class. We used the multiple probe model across participants to assess how digital social stories facilitated learning the "Drop, Cover, and Hold On" technique and safe evacuation. The intervention included baseline, instruction, fading, probe, follow-up, and generalization sessions. Data collection used tools developed with the skill analysis recording technique. RESULTS: Findings indicate digital social stories effectively helped all participants acquire earthquake safety skills. The intervention supported skill generalization to different settings and maintained them during follow-up sessions in the first, third, and fifth weeks post-instruction. CONCLUSION: This study shows that digital social stories can enhance the acquisition, generalization, and maintenance of safety skills in individuals with autism spectrum disorder when taught in a safe, simulated environment designed to prepare them for emergencies.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2025 · doi:10.1177/0198742919874050