Can a Social Story help my child?

Although Carol Gray developed Social Stories as a tool for teaching children with autism about behavioral expectations, the process also works for many other children with cognitive disabilities and even young children without disabilities who may need explicit instruction about a social situation. The key in creating the individualized story is the process of seeking to understand how the child perceives the situation and what Information might be missing (or challenging to them about the situation) in their perception. For children with autism, it may be the context of a situation. For children with intellectual disabilities or Down syndrome, it may be their knowledge of the world or how to communicate with others.

Many children with disabilities spend much of their time in classrooms and programs in which typical social norms are not practiced, so they lack opportunities as well as sometimes cognitive skills to make inferences about social norms. A Social Story can provide explicit instruction to help the child navigate the situation, but first the adult has to know what information the child is missing that provides cues to others how to behave.

Learn more in our article What is a Social Story? Featuring Carol Gray.