Jj is for Jottings 146.  Social Stories.

Social Stories were developed to explain social situations to autistic children and help them learn socially appropriate behaviour and responses.  The terms Social Story™ and Social Stories™ are trademarks originated and owned by Carol Gray in 1991.  There are many stories “out there” purporting to be Social Stories, but if they do not follow the trademarked criteria, they are not.

The purpose of this article is to introduce the idea of Social Stories to those who may not have come across them before.  For in-depth knowledge of how to write them, you will need to go to the source: Carol Gray herself.  (“The New Social Story Book”).

WHAT IS A SOCIAL STORY?

Autistic people often misunderstand or don’t pick up on social cues like body language, facial expressions, gestures and eye contact.  Carol Gray developed Social Stories as a way for children to learn how they should behave in social settings.  Social Stories do this by explicitly pointing out:

• details about the situation
• what usually happens in that situation
• the actions or behaviour which we expect from children in that setting.

This can help children pick up on cues they wouldn’t normally notice. It can assist children to learn social norms, and new skills such as learning to empathise with others.  This may then reduce anxiety and help with managing difficult behaviour.

We can also use Social Stories with other children with learning and intellectual disabilities.

We create Social Stories to teach autistic children about the social behaviour that is expected in almost any social situation.  Examples include the supermarket, the doctor’s surgery, greeting people, personal space, turn-taking, interrupting, and so on.  The list is endless.  A speech pathologist is often the main creator of Social Stories.  However they must be created in close collaboration with parents and child to ensure the Story is a perfect fit for the child.  Parents can also learn to create their own Stories, generally under the guidance of the speech pathologist.

COMPONENTS OF SOCIAL STORIES.

Social Stories answer relevant ‘wh’ questions that describe context.  This includes:

• Place (WHERE)
• Time-related information (WHEN)
• Relevant people (WHO)
• Important cues (WHAT)
• Basic activities, behaviours or statements (HOW)
• The reasons or rationale behind them (WHY).

They are made up of Descriptive Sentences, as well as optional Coaching Sentences.  Descriptive Sentences accurately describe relevant aspects of the context, including external facts. For example: “Today I am going to the doctor.”   They also describe internal states such as feelings and preferences. Example:  “I am frightened of getting a needle.”

Social Stories have a title, an introduction which clearly sets out the topic, a body that adds detail, and a conclusion that reinforces and summarises the information.  We tailor them to the individual abilities, attention span, learning style and interests of the person for whom we are creating them.

We write Social Stories in the first- or third- person i.e. “I” or “We”.  They can be written in the past, present or future tense, according to need.  They usually include relevant illustrations or photographs, which can make all the difference to capturing the child’s interest and attention. We write these Stories in positive language, and they contain sentences which applaud the child’s achievements.

The principle of using pictures to encourage children to engage in learning is applied to reading in this article.  And how we can use pictures to aid comprehension when learning to read is found in the article on interactive reading with children.

WHEN DO WE USE SOCIAL STORIES?

Once we have written a Social Story, an adult reads the story with the child to ensure the child understands it.  Ideally, the adult reads a story just before the event it describes.  For example, each morning a parent and child might read a story about what to do in the playground.  The teacher might also read the story with the child just before playtime.

Parents and teachers help the child practise by reminding the child of the story’s key points in the given situation. For example, ‘What does the story tell us to do now?’

At first, you need to read Social Stories with the child daily.  Gradually, as the child learns the new behaviour, you can phase them out.  When you use the stories is more important than how long you use them for.

BENEFITS OF SOCIAL STORIES FOR AUTISTIC CHILDREN.

Some of the benefits include:

• Helping children learn self-care and social skills.
• Allowing children with special needs to understand their behaviour.
• Assisting autistic children to understand emotions such as anger, sadness and happiness, and how to deal with them.
• Helping children on the spectrum cope with various changes and everyday life transitions.
• Encouraging children to work on developing relationships and providing rewards for accomplishing social tasks.
• Reinforcing proper and/or accepted behaviour.
• Teaching autistic children how to join in activities, use their imagination, and play with others.
• Providing the tools to teach children to make and maintain friendships, as well as to join in group activities.

USING STORIES WITH NON-AUTISTIC CHILDREN.

Carol Gray developed her Social Stories specifically for autistic children.  However, we can use either Social Stories (following the strict protocols) or a similar principle, and apply them to children with other special needs.  Clearly, relevant pictures accompanying the narrative will assist children with poor comprehension – the visual aspects support comprehension.  Likewise, children with poor auditory skills can also benefit greatly when given some extra visual support.

The principles of personalising by using photos of the actual child and incorporating the child’s interests are not just the province of Social Stories.  These are principles of good teaching practice.  When a child has no difficulties with language and learning, these “extras” are not necessary.  But when children have challenges, we need to find ways to enhance the way we teach them, both at home and at school.  So we can adapt some of the principles of Social Stories to create something similar which is relevant to non-autistic children but are not actually Social Stories.  (More like social stories without the trademark!)

Remember that, these days, children have access to many activities involving screens.  This means that they have visual support in all of these activities.  So, on the one hand, we need to incorporate pictures (visual support) to help in various learning situations.  On the hand, we need to reduce their reliance on visual support so they learn to listen. As part of this, we must also manage their screen time.  Bringing up children is quite a balancing act, isn’t it?

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