Mar 23 Sensory Tip- What Is a Social Story

Do You Know What Is a “Social Skill Story”?

These stories are teaching tools to develop social skills and to prepare the child who finds various new settings difficult or confusing.

Children who have Sensory Processing  Disorder or children with Autism and related disabilities are overwhelmed when faced with a new situation. To help these children know what to expect and how to act, simple personalized stories are told. By repeating these “Social Stories”, about basic things most other children intuitively know or are not bothered if they do not know, it prepares children with ASD and/or SPD.

The stories use the real setting, the same events and emphasize how the other children will act and how he should act also. “Today, after recess, I go to the gym to hear a man play his guitar and sing for us. I will walk to the gym with my class and teacher. I see all the other students sitting in chairs. We sit and are quiet to hear. The principal, Mrs. Snow, tells us the name of the man. The man is playing the guitar and sings for us. The children are happy and they clap. I see my friends clap, I can clap also. The clapping is louder than the principal’s voice but it stops fast...

Social Stories cannot take away the underlying problems but they can reduce the anxiety experienced in new, unfamiliar, over-stimulating, or stressful situations.

Do you use Social Stories?
Are they effective?
Leave a comment to share with us.