Resource Review - "Social Stories"

Social Stories

A Resource Review by Teodora Prostran, Haley Besworth, and Rosanna Bernardo

This resource is a tool used mainly to aid with perspective. It can be used by people with autism or those dealing with somebody with autism to gain perspective of what their counterparts may be experiencing.  It is a language-based strategy that’s used to explain social situations highlighting how another person may behave. This resource highlights the benefits of utilizing Social Stories for support, as they provide both written and visual guides to describe social interactions, social concepts, behaviours and situations that autistic individuals face daily. These stories cover a variety of topics that are relevant to the physical, emotional, and mental state of students with autism. This resource is beneficial because it’s used to explain how others may behave, feel, perceive, or react to social scenarios. Most importantly, social stories are meant to be practical. This means the lessons they teach can be directly applied to real world scenarios.

From a professional perspective, we believe that Carol Gray developed this material as an interventional program strategy. It’s meant to serve as an example of a social interaction so if students with autism are not grasping a social situation, then they can observe the scenario from a third party perspective. There are set guidelines by Gray’s program to aid teachers in implementing Social Stories as a part of their learning. This resource is useful because it outlines how one could create a social story that will help an individual with autism gain a better understanding and cope with a situation. Step 1 is to picture the goal, knowing what the intention and end result is. What does the person need to understand in order to achieve this goal? Step 2 is to gather the information, knowing that you want to tackle one main idea at a time as not to be too overwhelming. The final step is to tailor the text to reflect the student and his/her ability to process the information, giving them insight with different perspectives. Tailoring the text also means to make the content relevant to the social context being addressed so that you as the educator can provide appropriate guidance and direction in teaching how to respond to this particular social situation (The National Autistic Society, n.d.). If a teacher used this resource with the intention to create their own  Social Story, it stresses the importance of maintaining the same voice that you would carry in your classroom - patient, caring, and supportive. This is imperative because during this process, it is vital that the educator has a positive attitude towards the learning. This will generate successful outcomes such as improved behavior, communication, cognitive and social skills. Although the results are successful and positive, some research indicates that the most promising results are found when the individual engages in reading a Social Story prior to engaging in the target situation covered in the story (Cosgrove, 2017) (The National Autistic Society, n.d.).

The cost of this tool could potentially be next to nothing, as any individual can create their own social stories if they follow the appropriate steps. The book written by Gray ranges from $30-$50, depending on where it is purchased. However, if used in practice, you may need auditory resources, and time if this is a resource that will be regularly used with individuals with autism. (Research Autism, 2017). If someone needs assistance with creating Social Stories, someone who is trained can assist in writing them (For example, a speech pathologist who has appropriate training can assist), however this may be costly because you may end up paying per session with the trained individual (Raising Children, n.d.). Social Stories are fairly easy to implement, and do require very little resources, which makes this tool highly accessible (Cosgrove, 2017).

To consolidate our learning from this resource, we’ve attempted to create our own Social Story. In a real scenario, we would incorporate visuals along with this story to deepen the student’s understanding (Child Autism Parent Cafe, n.d.). .

Background: Max is in grade 3 and is diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Max has difficulty responding verbally especially during greetings that acknowledge others. We aim to practice verbal greetings such as “hello” and “goodbye” through interventions such as prompting, modelling, and positive reinforcement. This is a Social Story we can read with Max however often the educator sees fit.

Social Story: There are many different of ways to greet someone.

When I see someone I know, I will say “hello” or “hi”.

People like when I greet them. It makes them feel good.

I also give them a smile.

People like when I say “hello” to them. When I smile, they smile back.

They will say “hello” or “hi” back to me.

If I am leaving, I will say “good-bye” or “see you tomorrow!’ to someone that I know because it makes them feel special. People like to feel special.

I may also smile or wave my hand.

Autistic individuals tend to avoid initiating or reciprocating social interactions. The goal in this scenario, is to help Max to understand and be aware of the social norm that is greeting someone. This Social Story is beneficial to improve Max’s participation in simple social situations. It will help develop some interest in establishing friendships and making connections. It also helps as a guideline of the conventions of social interaction. Therefore, our group has concluded that Social Stories as a resource is a great supportive tool that should be combined with other instructional strategies to be the most impactful on the learner (Child Autism Parent Cafe, n.d.).

References

Child Autism Parent Cafe. (N.d.) A Child With Autism Can Get Their Needs Met... From Preschool To Adult Services. Child Autism Parent Cafe.Retrieved from: www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com/.

Cosgrove, G. (2017). Are Social Stories effective? Educate Autism.Retrieved from: http://www.educateautism.com/social-stories/are-social-stories-effective.html

Long, S. (2017).  Behavior Social Stories. The Autism Helper, 13 Feb. 2017,

Retrieved from: www.theautismhelper.com/behavior-social-stories/.

Raising Children. (N.d) Social Stories. Raising Children: The Australian Parenting Site. Retrieved From: http://m.raisingchildren.net.au/articles/social_stories_th.html

Research Autism. (2017). Social Stories and Autism. Research Autism: Improving the Quality of Life. Retrieved from: http://researchautism.net/interventions/168/social-stories-and-autism/costandtime

The National Autistic Society. (N.d.) Social Stories and Comic Strip Conversations. The National Autistic Society. Retrieved from: http://www.autism.org.uk/about/strategies/social-stories-comic-strips.aspx