Brief report: Targeting the social communication skills of an autistic adolescent with a co-occurring ADHD diagnosis using two formats of a social story

Friends are an important part of adolescent development. Autistic adolescents with a co-occurring ADHD diagnosis may struggle with the social communication skills necessary to make friends (i.e., verbal initiations and on-topic responses) due to the characteristics of both disorders. This study used an alternating treatment design to compare a social story intervention in two formats (i.e., paper and technology) when used to address the social communication skills of an autistic adolescent with an ADHD diagnosis. Results from this study showed that the social story read prior to a gaming session with a neurotypical peer was ineffective in increasing participant social communication skills. However, generalization probes four weeks after the intervention concluded indicated the mean level of initiations was higher compared to baseline, comparison, and maintenance phases.