Use of a Social Story intervention to improve mealtime skills of an adolescent with Asperger syndrome.

One teen with Asperger syndrome ate lunch at school every day.

The team wrote a short Social Story about keeping food on the plate and wiping his mouth.

They used an ABAB design: story, no story, story, no story.

They counted spills and wipes across each phase.

When the Social Story was in place, spills dropped and mouth-wipes rose.

The gains flipped on and off with each phase, showing clear control.

Mealtime manners looked better after just a few story readings.

Kokina et al. (2010) pooled many single-case Social Story studies and found only small, shaky effects.

The same study sits inside that meta-analysis, so the strong single result is part of the weak average.

Leaf et al. (2012) went further and showed that a full teaching-interaction package beat Social Stories hands-down, mastering 18 social skills versus only 4 with stories.

Camilleri et al. (2024) now updates the field with 856 app users, confirming tiny but real benefits for digital Social Stories, especially for girls and gender-diverse youth.

You can still use a quick paper Social Story for narrow mealtime goals with older students, but keep hopes modest.

Pair the story with modeling, practice, and feedback if you want strong or lasting change.

Track spills or wipes with simple tally sheets so you can drop the story once skills hold.