Social Stories Training Program
Parents are offered the opportunity to attend small group settings for 2.5 hours to practice preparing social stories and comic strip conversations.
Social Stories are a tool for teaching social skills to children with autism and related disabilities. Social stories provide an individual with accurate information about those situations that he may find difficult or confusing. The situation is described in detail and focus is given to a few key points: the important social cues, the events and reactions the individual might expect to occur in the situation, the actions and reactions that might be expected of him, and why. The goal of the story is to increase the individual’s understanding of, make him more comfortable in, and possibly suggest some appropriate responses for the situation in question.
A sample Social Story
Lining Up
At school, we sometimes line up.
We line up to go to the gym, to go to the library, and to go out to recess.
Sometimes my friends and I get excited when we line up, because we’re going someplace fun, like out to recess.
It is okay to get excited, but it is important to try to walk to the line. Running can cause accidents, and my friends or I could get hurt.
I will try to walk to the line.
As may be evident, Social Stories are relatively short, straightforward descriptions of social situations, specifically detailing what an individual might expect from the situation and what may be expected of him.
Visual Strategies
Visual Strategies are things that we see. Body movements, environmental cues, pictures, objects and written language can all be used to support communication. Our environment is full of signs and logos and objects and other visual information that supports communication.
In addition, we can create our own specially designed visual tools to help meet specific communication needs. Using visual schedules, choice boards, tools to give information, tools to manage behavior and lots of other visual strategies can make a significant difference in a student’s ability to participate successfully in school and home routines.
We call them visual strategies, visual supports or visual tools. Sometimes we refer to visually supported communication. What these terms mean is that we are using something visual to help individuals understand communication better.
- We use visual strategies to help us communicate information to individuals.
- Visual tools help students organize their thinking.
- Visual supports are used to give choices or communicate rules.
- One of the most important uses for visual strategies is to give information such as what is happening, what is not happening, what is changing, etc.
You can create visual tools to give students the information they need to help them participate successfully in all the routines and activities in their lives.
There are lots of options. Schedules and calendars are the most common visual tools used to give students information. Step-by-step directions, choice boards, and classroom rules provide structure in classrooms. They help students by creating an environment that is more predictable and understandable.
Using visually supported communication is an extremely helpful approach for students with communication and behavior challenges. Visual strategies help students learn effective communication, appropriate social interaction, and positive behavior. Many people use a few visual tools with students. Few people explore all the possibilities.