Social stories are a great tool for teaching a variety of skills to students of all abilities. Social narratives are most effective when they are focused on one skill and are meaningful to students. Here are some tips for creating and using social stories effectively for your students.
CREATING SOCIAL STORIES
To begin, you must choose a skill. A social story should focus on a target skill that is applicable for the student. For example, if a student is struggling with the concept of “accepting no,” their social story should focus on that skill. First, explain why it is important to accept “no.” Next, outline the steps of how to appropriately accept “no.” Finally, describe how others feel when we accept “no” appropriately. Carol Gray is the expert on creating social stories and has created criteria that is evidence-based and easy to use. You can find more information from Carol Gray here.
USING SOCIAL STORIES
Social narratives have been shown to be most effective when they are read to students once a day for at least two weeks in a row. Students have the most success when their story can be read to them when they are at baseline for behavior. Add this into a morning or afternoon routine to ensure this gets done each day!
EXAMPLES
Implementing this feelings social narrative can help teach students how to recognize and manage feelings. Using this as a starting point and modifying to individualize for students would be a great idea!
Using back to school social narratives can help some students transition at the start of the school year. Add one (or more) of these 13 stories into a morning routine to alleviate unnecessary stress from the beginning of the school year. Read about using this resource here!
