Social Stories

Social stories are tools/books used to teach social skills and behaviors to kids with autism or other disabilities. I've known about them for a while now, but wasnt sure how to go about making an effective social story for my boys. They both love to look at pictures of themselves and so i knew i had to put their pics in the stories for it to be most effective. I tinkered with the idea of having a special book made for them, but the dollar signs kept adding up as i thought about the concepts i wanted them to learn and what it would cost to put several books together. After doing some minor internet searching, i found this idea on another website and decided to break out the art supplies and make my own social story books with books we have around the house (or cheap paperbacks from the store).

I already owned a couple of good ol' Mercer Mayer books to use, and bought a couple more at borders for $4 each (which is probably on the expensive end!), printed off pics of the family, cut them out, and used a good old glue stick from Jonahs art box to paste them into the story. So far so good. A cheap and easy (but a little time consuming; cut cut, snip snip...) way to provide my kids with a social learning tool.

My boys LOVE to look at these books and see themselves doing different things. Jonah is terrified of the dentist, but maybe after looking at the "Trip to the Dentist" book a couple of times, he will start to get a little more comfortable there. He also has a hard time being social, so i made a book about him and his friend (i chose his cousin Caden as his friend since he is very familiar with him) so he can learn what to do with a friend. Tobin needs to be a little more independent and nicer to his sister, so i put a book together for him called "All by Myself" where little critter does things himself and helps his little sister too.

I highly recommend this for anyone who has a kid (with special needs or not) who needs to learn certain concepts, rules, behaviors..... It's a great parenting tool!