Teaching social studies content to students with autism using a graphic organizer intervention

• A functional relationship was demonstrated between the graphic organizer with adapted text intervention and the ability to answer comprehension questions about US history passages.
• All three students were able to generalize the use of the graphic organizer to answer comprehension questions on untrained adapted history passages.
• All three students maintained the graphic organizer skill to answer comprehension questions on untrained adapted history passages above baseline levels.
• Graphic organizers and adapted text made information about US history accessible to student with autism.
• Preteaching the terms on the graphic organizer may be needed for students to master the use of the organizer.

The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) emphasizes the teaching of social studies to provide students with information, critical thinking skills, and experiences to allow them to grow into responsible and effective citizens. There have been few studies focused on social studies instruction for students with autism spectrum disorders or other developmental disabilities. One of the barriers to teaching social studies to students without and with disabilities is students’ ability to read and understand written expository text. This current study investigated the use of a modified graphic organizer to promote improved expository text comprehension for middle school students with autism. Three students were instructed to use a modified graphic organizer intervention to answer nine items from United States history passages. Results indicated that each of the three students increased their ability to independently respond to the nine comprehension items.