Social Stories

Let's get right to the program.

In this episode, we'll look at a widely used tool in working with children with autism, social stories.

An autism educator by the name of Carol Gray created the idea of using stories to help children with autism make sense of the world around them.

Headstart.gov says this, "...social stories clearly describe important parts of a social activity or event." including what might happen, how the child might feel, how others might feel or respond, and what are appropriate behavior expectations.

This can increase the child's understanding of the social situation and help them learn a positive skill or behavior to use.

Here's an example.

A social story or article has a title and an introduction that clearly identifies the topic, a body that adds detail, and a conclusion that reinforces and summarizes the information.

And number ten provides concise directions for putting the story into action.

a random great teacher who

did a bit of extra research but overall I think it was yeah no I'm great I'm happy that there's like been a shift because I've heard now that even the classrooms look different they're accommodating for more of the neurodiverse needs as well or just like the different brains that we have as well which is really good to hear and I actually wanted to ask you, have you guys, I guess because you're going through all this, have you guys considered doing things like stories or like social stories with photos and things like that to transition to school?

Yeah, definitely.

And you know what? A lot of schools actually have video tours.

Oh, great.

Yeah, so I think that's also another great opportunity to, you know, be showing the kids the school grounds and things like that.

But, yeah, we'll definitely do some social stories and, you know, I like to use lots of things like we have a visual calendar at home.

Yeah, okay.

By concentrating on fewer accommodations, a parent can more effectively monitor their implementation and provide feedback to the teacher more effectively.

For these younger children or students with more cognitive challenges at any age, social stories are a research-proven way to address the additional anxiety and can be used throughout the school year when problems arise.

Head Start's website says, Using a social story can help reduce a child's anxiety during a new or difficult social situation and increase independence.

Social stories clearly describe important parts of a social activity or event and including what might happen, how the child might feel, how others might feel or respond, and appropriate behavior expectations.

This can increase the child's understanding of the social situation and help them learn a positive skill or behavior to use.

For middle and high school students who have multiple teachers, this could be more complicated.

And then I sent actually a guide.

So if you're interested, you can email us for a guide on how to do social stories for teachers, caregivers, and play therapists.

Oh, awesome.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I did want to tell you.

So we had talked on the podcast when we were doing social stories about social stories and structured life.

And I did it with my daughter.