Social Stories™ for adults with Learning Disabilities (SSALD)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Social Stories™ as an individually tailored intervention for adults with Learning Disabilities.
IRAS ID
227124
Contact name
Nicol Aphalé
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Northampton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
People with Learning Disabilities often struggle with understanding social situations, for example starting a conversation, having a two-way conversation and understanding other people’s feelings or actions. These difficulties understanding can result in distress and behaviour that is challenging or socially inappropriate. There are limited evidence based interventions to help adults with Learning Disabilities with social difficulties. A Social Story™ is an individually tailored intervention which aims to improve understanding of a difficult social situation, by explaining the social context, social cues and suggesting what to do in the situation. This research project asks ‘Are Social Stories™ an effective intervention for the simple behaviour problems of adults with Learning Disabilities?’
This is a single site study taking place in Community Learning Disability Teams in Northamptonshire. Participants will be adults with Learning Disabilities who are able to consent to be involved in the project, along with their carers. This project will use individual case studies to investigate whether a Social Story™ helps reduce distress and improve behaviour in an identified social situation. The participant, carer and researcher will identify a regularly encountered social situation that the participant is struggling with, often indicated by the behaviour they display in that situation (e.g. socially inappropriate behaviour, or behaviour that indicates distress). The participant and carer will record what happens in the situation, this will help to better understand what they are finding difficult and gather information to support the development of the Social Story™, which will be done by the research team. The participant and/or their carer will then use simple behaviour monitoring sheets to record behaviour before and after the Social Story™ is introduced. At the end of the study participants and their carers will be interviewed to find out about their experience of using a Social Story™.
REC name
Social Care REC
REC reference
17/IEC08/0052
Date of REC Opinion
8 Dec 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion