Social stories

What are social stories?

Social stories are a personalised, visual approach that:

• Describe a social situation or context in a way that helps people with developmental disorders (often Autism) to understand
• Helps a child or young person to make sense of social situations, routines, the meaning of language and the unwritten social rules
• Helps a child or young person to understand what behaviour is expected and why it is important

How do social stories work?

A social story is made up of several different types of descriptive sentences:

Setting the scene

These use descriptive sentences.

For example: ‘At school we sometimes line-up. We line up for PE, to go outside and to go for dinner.

Explaining the problem

These also use descriptive sentences.

For example: ‘Sometimes my friends and I get excited when we line up, because we’re going somewhere fun like out to play’

You can then focus on some other perspectives such as ‘Why do we need to do it?’

For example: ‘It is ok to get excited but it is important to try to walk in the line. Running can cause accidents and my friends or I could get hurt.’

Highlighting the solution

What do you want the child or young person to do? Use some coaching sentences.

Focus on one thing that you want your child to do differently.

For example: ‘I will try to walk in the line’.

What happens when the child or young person tries to do the new thing?

For example, ‘My teacher will feel proud when I walk in the line’ or ‘I will get a sticker when I walk in the line’

The social story

• The social story could be written on one page or in a book format
• It should be supported by pictures, if possible, photos of the situation

Introducing the social story:

• Before developing the social story, talk to the child or young person about how the Social Story will work, such as ‘You know that sometimes we get too excited and don’t walk in line? Well I’ve got a story to help us to remember why it’s important to walk in line. Shall we find out?’
• Read the social story through together.
• Talk about the social story to check the child understands the content and link it to their own behaviour or situation to ensure the social story is meaningful.
• Encourage the child or young person to take ownership of the story – if they can prompt them to read it and share it with other significant adults and peers.

When should we use a social story?

• Choose a time when the child or young person is calm and engaged to introduce and read the social story through for the first time.
• Find a consistent time to go over the story, such as daily before the situation occurs.
• Once the social story is mastered, keep it as a visual prompt to remind the child or young person.
• Monitor its effectiveness. If necessary rewrite parts of the story to improve the child or young person’s performance.