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March's Tip for
Parents
From ISVI's Speech & Language Department
What are Social
Stories?
Parents and
teachers often ask what are good ways to teach a child appropriate social
skills. One strategy that continues to show promise is the use of Social
Stories. Social Stories were developed by Carol Gray, PH.D. (www.thegraycenter.org)
and are most often referred to when discussing strategies for children with
autism. In fact, however, Social Stories appear to be a good way to support all
children who display social skill challenges. Children with visual impairment
typically are unable to learn social skills “incidentally” like their sighted
peers due to their decreased vision. Social Stories can be beneficial in
supporting children to learn and develop age appropriate social skills.
Social Stories are written, focusing on a social situation, which may be
confusing or difficult for a child to understand. Using a prescribed format, the
story describes what the child may expect to happen and what may be expected of
him. The goal is to help increase the child’s understanding of a situation by
making him/her feel more comfortable, and suggesting age appropriate responses.
Before we go much further, let’s take a look at a sample social story written
for a child who exhibited difficulty when visitors came to the classroom.
Visitors in my Classroom
Sometimes visitors come to my classroom.
Sometimes I am working playing or reading a book.
Sometimes I don’t want to stop what I am doing.
I need to stop what I’m doing and speak to the visitors.
When my teacher tells me we have a visitor , I might say, “Hi my name is ______,
what’s your name?”
When the visitors are leaving, I might say, “nice to meet you, come back again.”
When you don’t talk to visitors you are being rude.
I will try not to be rude and talk to the visitors.
My teacher will say, “thank you for talking to the visitors, that was very
polite.”
I will feel happy when I follow the classroom rules and speak to the visitors.
As you can see, the story focuses on information for this child to use during a
social situation that is challenging. Depending on your child’s cognitive level,
and level of language understanding, stories can be written using a variety of
presentation styles and options. Stories can be adapted to fit children with a
range of abilities including readers and non-readers, by using text (Braille),
illustrations, pictures, symbols, audio tape, video, and story boxes. What ever
presentation style, is selected it is important that the story be adapted to
your child’s learning needs and abilities.
Another benefit in using Social Stories is the child’s increased opportunities
to review and practice outside the actual “social event”. Practicing when the
event is not occurring often provides reduced stress, increasing his/her success
in future social situations.
When working with your child’s educational team it is important to share your
insights into challenging social situations from your child’s perspective and
discuss how social stories could benefit your child by incorporating their
strengths and weaknesses.
Social skills are an important life long skill which can have a significant
impact on your child’s future success. As a parent, your input is a necessary
component for successful social skills training. It is extremely important that
parents and professionals work together to develop meaningful social skill
supports.
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