Social Stories: Introduction
Welcome!
A social story is an intervention strategy
that teaches, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) self-awareness
as well as self-calming, and self-management skills.
Imagine ...
You are at home watching your favorite
TV program. Suddenly it is interrupted by a news bulletin. You have
been waiting all week to see what will happen next on your show but
now you’re suddenly in the middle of news that you think could
wait until later.
Despite disappointments now and then, you
have learned how to deal with life’s little changes, but what if
you had not learned those skills? What if situations like this threw
you off every time they occurred? Can a person learn how to deal with
this type of challenge?
Individuals who have cognitive and developmental
impairments and behavior disorders such as ASD have great difficulty
dealing with unforeseen situations like the TV episode, and many other
curves that life throws us. Therefore, they become extremely upset with
changes in routine.
The information that follows will provide
you with great ideas for using social stories to assist children with
ASD learn how to deal with such situations.
The idea of social stories was developed
by Carol Gray (1991) as a way to provide concrete information to help
improve students’ social skills and appropriate behaviors. A social
story uses specific types of sentences to teach social skills. It is
written for a specific student in a specific situation; consequently,
the style and content vary according to the age of the student and the
given event.
A social story is an easy and effective
way to teach students to handle problem situations in appropriate ways.
Situations that cause difficulty for students with ASD include transitioning
from one class to another, understanding social situations such as playing
at recess, and personal
hygiene such as taking a shower daily, and so on.
When developing a social story, the topic
is determined by observing the child and gathering information related
to the situation that presents problems. When possible, the social story
is written with the student. In addition, it is read to and with the
student as often as needed and may be worked into his daily schedule.
Lecture Content
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