Hi

 

A week or two ago, Dr. Justin Leaf posted this on his Facebook page, after what I am assuming was some frustration at seeing BCBA's ask colleagues if there's a social story for fill-in-the-blank topic. 

 

If you're not aware, Justin has conducted research and critically analyzed two very popular intervention strategies: Social Stories and Social Thinking (here's a link to a review he and his colleagues wrote up on Social Stories, and my friends at ABA Inside Track chatted with him about Social Thinking here). I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say that his research has found the efficacy of these interventions lacking. 

 

At the same time, when I've seen him pointing out the shortcomings of these things on social media, it generates a ton of pushback. For example, the FB post I linked to above generated 150 comments! Many of these comments came from practitioners who use social stories and have found them to be helpful. 

 

As such, I wanted to bring Justin onto the podcast to walk us through his analyses, and more importantly, provide guidance in terms of what practitioners can do differently, as we all are interested in the same outcome: improving the lives of the people we work with. 

 

To be clear, I'm coming into this interview biased towards agreeing with Justin. In my day job, I haven't really seen either of these strategies be very helpful. Or, to the extent that social thinking and social stores are connected to improvement, they were a part of treatment plans that employed many different strategies where it was not clear which component ultimately contributed to behavior change. 

 

That said, if you are in the "pro" camp for social stories or social thinking, please send me your questions, as I'd like to present your point of view and get Justin's reaction. 

 

We'll be talking early next week, so if you'd like to chime in, please do so quickly. 

 

All the best,

Matt