Purpose Statement & Rationale

The purpose of my study is to determine how the use of video social stories and social skills strategies will increase the ability for a student with autism to model identified target behaviors and support her successful transition from high school into the Young Adult Program and beyond.

Rationale

I am an Alternative Curriculum Program teacher and case manager for nine young adults. I see my students at the beginning of the day and end of the day for long periods of time. My students also check in with me throughout the day. I communicate with my students' parents and other teachers daily to encourage proactive communication and supports for each student.

I take daily data on all of my students through behavior sheets, parent communication notebooks, email and behavior notebooks. When reviewing this data, I noticed a pattern of behavior problems occurring before, during, and after students' social interactions. One student, in particular, experienced more behavior problems socially than others. The student's behavior challenges occurred during morning greetings, passing periods, changes in schedules, lunch, dismissal and unstructured time. I then decided to observe the student during these times. I noticed that the student struggled communicating with new people and peers. The student would often ask the same two rehearsed questions without waiting for an answer. Occasionally, the student would resort to inappropriate social behavior in order to receive desired attention. Changes in daily schedules also affected how the student greeted others in the morning. These events all show evidence of unexpected behaviors due to a lack of mastered social skills.

Although I focused on one student with daily behavior problems due to a lack of social skills, the rest of my students occasionally struggle with similar issues. Social skills are a common struggle for students with disabilities. Many students can act out or have inappropriate behavior due to not knowing how to socialize with peers. Research shows that students with disabilities learn best through watching peer interactions or when peers clearly state social expectations. Four out of nine of my students have at least one behavior problem a week during social encounters. My students showed various emotions or behavior problems due to lack of social skill understanding.

I focused my research on the student described above, who demonstrates the most frequent unexpected behaviors. However, all of my students received some part of this social skill strategy instruction as best practice in special education programming. My research case study student has autism, which causes her to have difficulty forming relationships and communicating. Unexpected behaviors emerge daily for various amounts of time. When she struggled socially at the beginning of the day, it would often negatively influence her behavior for the remainder of the day. I recognized my student was unable to relate social skills in her daily peer interactions, job sites or adult interactions. Through action research and implementing best practices, I wanted to prepare this student with the appropriate social skills needed to form everyday relationships and build strong relationships in the real world. Click here to read more about my action research.