What is the best way to teach social stories?

Filed under:Social Skills — posted by admin on January 6, 2009 @ 12:21 pm

Hi and welcome to the first Aspergers blog post of 2009; and here it is …
Question

Social Stories: what is the best way to teach social stories, by parents, a therapist, or in a peer group setting? Are there good resources for the homeschooler?

Answer

Social stories can be effectively used to teach appropriate behaviour in a variety of settings. Social stories may be used by parents, therapists, or in peer group settings. Homeschooling parents often use social stories effectively. Social stories are used to address the following psychological and social symptoms:

Feelings of isolation from others;
A lack of imagination in play or expression;
Consistent shyness, anxiety, and unhappiness;
Depression during the years of adolescence and early adulthood;
Obsessions, including irrational fears and anxieties;
Timidity;
Difficulty in relationships with others.

The Importance of Social Stories

Social Stories are a teaching device for children. The stories are used to teach everyday social skills to children who have a diagnosis of autism or a related disability. The stories contain accurate and useful information for someone encountering situations that they may find difficult or confusing. The stories approach a topic by describing it in explicit detail and focus on teachable skills needed within the story. A typical social story will discuss a given situation, how someone is expected to react in that situation, and why the reactions are appropriate.

Deciding on an Appropriate Social Story

Social stories are individualized in that each child is seen as an individual whose problems accompany a diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome or high-functioning autism (AS/HFA).

An appropriate social story captures the areas of the child’s life that are challenging. The child’s behaviour is evaluated by parents and teachers at home, in public, and at school. Parents, teachers, and therapists look at the child’s tantrums, withdrawal, social, and escape behaviours. They target these behaviors, and use a social story that addresses the behaviors.

Here is a sample Social Story obtained from: http://www.polyxo.com/socialstories/introduction.html

Lining Up
At school, we sometimes line up.
We line up to go to the gym, to go to the library, and to go out to recess.
Sometimes my friends and I get excited when we line up, because we’re going someplace fun, like out to recess.
It is okay to get excited, but it is important to try to walk to the line. Running can cause accidents, and my friends or I could get hurt.
I will try to walk to the line. (The behavioural goal for the Aspie.)
As you can see, Social Stories are short and to the point. They are structured to describe social situations, explicitly describing what the child with Asperger’s can expect from the situation, and what society expects of the child.

The Benefits of Social Stories

Social Stories are beneficial in that they focus on “theory of mind” impairments (i.e.; mindblindness), which are inabilities to understand the feelings and behaviours of other people. In addition, social stories not only provide information about social situations, but help the Aspie learn how to handle them.

Socially relevant information (like Social Stories) with illustrations and text, have been shown to be effective with Aspies. In conclusion, Social Stories provide the opportunity for the child to practice needed skills and can be used by parents, teachers, and therapists.

You should consider using Dr. Carol Gray’s Social Stories, recommended by Dr. Tony Attwood, a world renowned expert on Asperger’s Syndrome. You can read about it at … Social Stories

Thanks

Dave Angel

PS – The new website continues to grow daily and I have to say I think it’s a really exciting project that you are really going to enjoy. Yesterday I spent a few hours adding all the back-dated copies of the monthly Autism/Aspergers newsletter to the site. I was surprised that there have already been 25 copies; and there are some real gems of information in there (and to be honest I had forgotten writing half of it!) As ever I’ll keep updating you – but I am Really hoping to have it all done by February.

comments (6)

6 comments »

Thank you, Dave, for these insightful and very helpful articles! Keep ‘em coming!

Comment by Cindy — January 6, 2009 @ 4:10 pm
My son is in 5th grade, and we have used social stories for the past three years. It is a great way to reinforce “good decisions” and a great tool to teach the ramifications of “bad decisions”. My son has shown marked progress in school, and we know that social stories, and rewarding the “good” are both part of his success.

Comment by Mary — January 6, 2009 @ 6:49 pm
Social stories work quite well we used these when my 13 year old was in grade school to help him with handing in work, making freinds and what was expected of him.

Comment by RONNIE — January 7, 2009 @ 5:00 pm
My 10 year old has problems trying to remember to put homework in his schoolbag and to pass in his homework or to bring home letters or notes from school regarding activities or teachers requests. Would a social story help to improve his memory in these tasks?

Comment by cheryl — January 8, 2009 @ 10:48 am
There are a list of social stories called “Success Stories” at http://www.sandbox-learning.com that you can subscribe to for a yr for a minimal fee that allows you to download as many copies as you like, plus customise them to your child by entering their name or teachers name, friends names, siblings etc into the pre written text. You can then print it out in colour or as a diagram for your child to colour in and its ready to go. Its great for saving time once you set it up you can zip out copies for home, school, family etc so everyone can use the same scripted responses to the desired behaviour for a particular social situation thus increasing the likelihood of learning for the child thru repetition and saves you wringing your brain to come up with a story, text and pictures! When i print mine out i put the pages in those clear plastic sleeves and tie them together to form a book that is durable. Excellent for reading thru with your child BEFORE you get somewhere or some place where you might come across that social situation where these social behaviours can be required, or better yet, engineer a situation that will require these behaviours and read the story first, role play it taking turns then practice it in real life.

Comment by robyn oldfield — January 10, 2009 @ 5:48 am
Hi Cheryl,My son has high functioning autism and he has difficulty with verbal tasks so i would always convert the verbal instruction into a visual either by a social story or a picture sequence. When he can read i look forward to using “check lists” where i can write just a key word like “homework” maybe and any other items ,list them , laminate them into a book mark size and tie it to his school bag handle. For pre readers put a simple sketch next to the key word. I did this to help my son get the sequence right for getting dressed and stuck it on his wardrobe door and another for toileting which i stuck on the bathroom mirror and i have plans for many more eg. on his swimming bag for when school swimmimg starts. Ive also done my own social stories just using an A4 page divided into 6 squares (first draw hoizontal line across middle of page parralel to longest side then 3 equal vertical lines to divide into 6 squares) this is your story grid. think out your story into 6 key phrases and write them one per square sequentially across the page ,left to right, like a comic strip, and do a simple drawing illustrating each phrase to show your son 1) ask teacher for homework 2)put it in school bag. 3) give it to mum. 4) do homework before bedtime. 5)put it into school bag. 6)Give it to teacher next school day. Or whatever is what you want him to do ,that was just an example!!I did lots of these style story pages to deal with any task my son could not complete if it was said verbally. it certainly helped me to not repeat myself 100 times and helped him gain independence.Keep it short and keep it visual unless he is good reader then change format to a checklist style maybe. Just ideas !Nothing to lose!

Comment by robyn oldfield — January 10, 2009 @ 6:27 am