Social Stories

What is This Resource?

Social Stories are used as a tool for teaching social skills to children with autism and other exceptionalities. Social stories provide accurate information about a situation that an individual may struggle with in a social situation or may find confusing. Social Stories are relatively short and straightforward descriptions of the desired social situation. There will be specific instructions or details on how the event is supposed to go. The social stories are typically customized for specific students that are looking to work on specific social situations by following the social cues outlined in the social story. 

These stories must include a who (student), what (social situation), when (does this situation take place), why (brief explanation on the reasoning why we are doing something a certain way) and how (outlined instructions to help guide the student through. There should be four types of sentences in social stories including Descriptive sentences (I go to school), perspective sentences (Sometimes I am upset when it is loud), cooperative sentences (When I am upset, I can put on headphones to make it quieter.), and affirmative sentences (Staying calm in school is good.) We combine these to help the students take accountability for what they are doing, while also acknowledging feelings and the student’s needs. If there is a particular behaviour that that needs to be supported at home and at school, then copies can be made for both locations.

Who Benefits From This Resource? 

This resource was invented for students with autism and other exceptionalities. However, this can be used also on students who have experienced problematic behaviour in social settings. As long as the framework for the story is modified for the specific student it could benefit many young students who are learning social cues and behaviors in schools. It also benefits educators as a resource to help with behaviour modification that can be easily printed or located near student for daily use. 

Benefits of This Resource 

Social stories attempt to give individuals perspective on the behaviours, thoughts and emotions of other individuals, which helps the students better predict the actions of other people. This helps address an area where students may lack knowledge of social cues. 

Social Stories do not just deter the undesirable behaviour of students, but also offer replacement behaviours for the undesirable ones that are being examined to eliminate these behaviours in the future. By positively reinforcing desirable behaviours in the social story, we can increase these positive behaviours as well. 

Social Stories have words that are paired with images to tell the story. Students tend to respond better to limited text and visual cues versus strictly speech as children with ASD sometimes have difficult processing speech and creating an appropriate reaction. With visuals there is modelling the desired behaviour in the social story. 

Usefulness 

As a teacher we will encounter many behaviours where students do not have a formed understanding of social cues and understanding. We can keep the format for different social skills and use in the future on other students by making small adjustments. It has shown to have benefits for both reducing problematic behaviour as well as increasing desirable behaviour. Having these social stories will allow the student to prepare for a situation/ interaction before it even happens. For example, many people with autism are able to have a respite worker who can take them out into the community and teach them their social skills. Before putting them in these situations, together you can review the social stories to allow for a smooth social day in the community.

Accessibility 

There are many examples of social stories on the internet. There are lots of free downloads where educators can find a template that they would like to use with their students. Also, there are apps that are available for use and creation of social stories. There are also plenty of software’s that you can find to help create social stories. Now, even though there are apps that you can use to streamline the process, it is possible to create social stories using Microsoft word and inserting the appropriate words and images into a well-designed format. These files can be stored on electronic devices for future or daily use as well as being printed out, laminated and put in the classroom in an accessible area for the student to review at the appropriate time. 

Cost 

To buy personal apps the cost can vary per app. A popular software that is used by many School Boards is Boardmaker. To buy the app is $400 or more, however teachers and EAs have the opportunity to sign up for free as long as they are an employee. Boardmaker is much more streamlined with instruction for completing the process. There are templates that are pre-set and uploaded by other users to create social stories. There are many images that are on the site to upload to create the most authentic and personalized social stories. Through the app, you can send interactive social stories directly to the student that they can access anywhere through the Boardmaker app. 

To review other costs of other sites and software’s, please refer to: 

Points of Improvement 

A common error that occurs with the creation of social stories is that educators do not review the social story at an appropriate time. Because this is the process of behaviour modification it is imperative that the social stories are repeated daily and at the appropriate time. If a student has a social story that is centred around appropriate recess behaviour this should be read alongside the student before going out for recess. The delivery is crucial so that the student understands what they should/ should not be doing. This reinforces the positive behaviours and deters the negative behaviours. 

Social Stories must be written in first person for the student so that they can identify that “I am making a change” “I get upset” “When I do this, I feel better and my friends will want to play with me”. Part of making these we want the students to read these statements thinking of the social and emotional well-being of others, trying to understand the feelings of other individuals. If students have difficulty with ready practice modelling or echolalia (the process of repeating what someone is saying) in small manageable chunks so the students can comprehend what they are reading, and practice the desirable behaviour. 

Students should not be reviewing social stories alone. We want our students to learn that a behaviour needs to be changed. When reviewing social stories with students, there can also be brief conversation about what they can do instead. This way the teacher is modelling good behaviour. Additional modelling and prompting and sometimes a chance for reflection can help strengthen the students understanding of the ‘why’ behind reading the social story. 

Additional Websites

References 

Ozdemir S. The effectiveness of social stories on decreasing disruptive behaviors of children with autism: three case studies. J Autism Dev Disord. 2008 Oct;38(9):1689-96. doi: 10.1007/s10803-008-0551-0. Epub 2008 Mar 29. PMID: 18373187. 

 

Chan, J. M., & O'Reilly, M. F. (2008). A Social Stories intervention package for students with autism in inclusive classroom settings. Journal of applied behavior analysis, 41(3), 405–409. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2008.41-405 


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