Clinical Skills Confidence: Social Story Resources
SLPs use social stories all the time! The term “Social Stories” is trademarked by Carol Gray and more information can be found on her website. In a nutshell, they are stories that are designed to help a student understand a situation or skill.
There is a wealth of resources available out there. Why reinvent the wheel? If you’re looking for a general social story, you can usually find one with a little searching. If not, never fear, I’ll let you know how I have customized ones when I couldn’t find what I needed!
First, the ready-made ones:
- Speaking of Speech has some social stories that have been posted by other SLPs.
- One Place for Special Needs has several social stories available
- Positively Autism is a blog that has some social stories for holidays and feelings
- Supporting Autism Spectum has a listing of some available social stories
Sometimes I am unable to find what I need, so I’ll create one using Custom Boards by Smarty Ears. Among other wonderful things that this app can do, one of the options is to create a mini-book. Open the app, click “new,” then “worksheets” and “My Book.” You can add pages as needed to fully customize it for your needs. You’re free to email the pdf to print and go!
Again, there are specific guidelines to writing Social Stories. You should write them from the perspective of the student. Carol Gray suggests a ratio of 2-5 descriptive sentences for each directive sentence. Feel free to learn more here.
A descriptive sentence gives information about a situation (who is there, events that occur). Example: When it is time to work, students sit at their desk and pay attention to the teacher.
A directive sentence gives information about what the student should do in that situation. Example: I should stay in my seat and look at my teacher.
A perspective sentence gives information about what others feel. Example: My teacher likes when I stay seated and listen to her.
*This information was summarized from Child-Autism-Parent-Cafe.com*
Do you use Social Stories? Do you find that they work well for your students?