Use of Mobile Social Story Maps in the Development of Cognitive and Social Skills of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to compare the effectiveness and efficiency of animated and non-animated mobile social story maps using the mobile learning environment that the authors developed. An application using the story map method based on social stories was developed. Mobile social story map was presented with animated and non-animated narrative and the effectiveness and efficiencies of the two methods on both listening comprehension and social communication skills were compared using an alternating treatments design. The participants of the study consisted of three children aged between 6 and 7 years with an ASD diagnosis. Research findings showed that mobile social story maps contribute to the development of social communication skills and listening comprehension skills of participants with an ASD. The results indicated that two methods were equally effective in improving social communication skills, but in improving listening comprehension skills, animated supported stories were more effective for one of the three participants. Also, animated narrative-supported mobile social story maps were more efficient for two participants.