Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2005 Modifying Behaviors of Children with Autism: The Use of Musically Adapted Social Stories in Home-Based Environments Yuen-Man Chan Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MUSIC MODIFYING BEHAVIORS OF CHILDREN WITH AUTISM: THE USE OF MUSICALLY ADAPTED SOCIAL STORIES IN HOME-BASED ENVIRONMENTS By YUEN-MAN CHAN A Thesis submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2005 The members of the Committee approve the thesis of Yuen-man Chan defended on October 31, 2005. __________________________ Alice-Ann Darrow Professor Directing Thesis __________________________ Clifford K. Madsen Committee Member __________________________ Jayne M. Standley Committee Member The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii This thesis is dedicated to children with special needs in Hong Kong. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am deeply appreciative of Dr. Alice-Ann Darrow for her guidance and assistance in producing this thesis. She has instilled confidence in me when things get frustrating. She has also made me aware of the potentials I possess. I wish to acknowledge the Board of Trustees of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund, who approved the award of scholarship for me to study the Master’s Program in Music Therapy at Florida State University. Without the grant, I would never be able to attain my dream of being a music therapist. I am indebted to the children who participated in this research. Their participation and the permission of their parents made this project possible. I am grateful to Mrs. Wong and Mrs. Yip, who had helped me with the participant recruiting process. It is my great pleasure to know all of them. Special thanks are offered to Zoe Ma, Wah-hei Ng, Cho-wai Joyce Lam, Janet Yau, and Wing-yin Cindy Chan, for their technical support and willingness to help. I wish to thank my friend, Bill Madden, who has helped me a great deal when I am almost 10,000 miles away from home. He is my family in Tallahassee! Thanks are extended to my best friend, Emily Ng, who has called regularly from Hong Kong to give me words of encouragement during these two and a half years. Thanks also for her listening ear. I must give tribute to my parents who brought me to my first piano lesson when I was six. Thank you for their love and bringing music to my life. Finally, special gratitude goes to my beloved, Yung-wai Desmond Chan, who has unconditionally given his love, support, and encouragement in the past five years. I am unable to express how grateful I am to him for his endless patience. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables ..........................................................................................................vii List of Figures ..........................................................................................................viii Abstract ................................................................................................................ix 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................1 Autism .........................................................................................................1 Social Deficits in Autism......................................................................................2 Pertinent Techniques.............................................................................................4 Statement of Purpose ............................................................................................5 2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE ...................................................................................6 Research on Autism..............................................................................................6 Cause of Social Deficits .......................................................................................7 Social Skills Techniques ......................................................................................8 Music Therapy and Autism ..................................................................................10 Musical Responses of Children with Autism Music Therapy with Children with Autism Social Stories........................................................................................................15 Developing a Social Story Intervention Effectiveness of Social Stories Rationale .........................................................................................................21 3. METHOD .........................................................................................................23 Participants .........................................................................................................23 Design .........................................................................................................23 Procedures .........................................................................................................23 v 4. CASE STUDIES........................................................................................................26 Case Study I .......................................................................................................26 Background Target Behavior Implementation Procedures Results Follow-up Case Study II ........................................................................................................29 Background Target Behavior Implementation Procedures Results Follow-up Case Study III.......................................................................................................32 Background Target Behavior Implementation Procedures Results Follow-up Case Study IV......................................................................................................35 Background Target Behavior Implementation Procedures Results Follow-up 5. DISCUSSION .........................................................................................................38 APPENDICES ..........................................................................................................41 A English Translations of the Original Chinese Social Stories..........................41 B Original Music for the Social Stories .............................................................44 C Social Story Books..........................................................................................49 D Human Subjects Committee Approval Letter.................................................69 E Parental Consent Form ....................................................................................71 F Child Assent .....................................................................................................73 REFERENCES ..........................................................................................................75 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ........................................................................................85 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Basic Social Story Sentences.................................................................16 Table 2: t-tests for Condition Comparisons for participant Mike........................28 Table 3: t-tests for Condition Comparisons for participant Toby........................31 Table 4: t-tests for Condition Comparisons for participant Cindy ......................34 Table 5: t-tests for Condition Comparisons for participant Karen ......................37 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Duration of Proper Sitting exhibited by participant Mike by condition ...............................................................................................28 Figure 2: Frequency of Aberrant Vocalizations exhibited by participant Toby by condition ...............................................................................................31 Figure 3: Frequency of Aggressive Behaviors exhibited by participant Cindy by condition ...............................................................................................34 Figure 4: Duration of Putting Things in Mouth exhibited by participant Karen by condition ...............................................................................................37 viii ABSTRACT The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of social stories and their musically adapted versions on modifying behaviors of children with autism in home-based environments within a Chinese culture. “Social stories” are used to teach social skills to children with autism by providing them with accurate social information for specific situations. Participants in this study were four Chinese children with a primary diagnosis of autism in Hong Kong. An individualized social story was created for each participant that addressed a behavioral problem identified by the parents. Original music was then composed to incorporate the sentences of the story as lyrics. An ABAC/ACAB counterbalanced design was used where the first and third components (A) represented the baseline conditions, the second component (B) represented the treatment condition “reading the story,” and the fourth component (C) represented the treatment condition “singing the story.” These conditions served as the independent variables for this study. The dependent variable was the frequency or duration