Social Stories

Social Stories™ are interventions to improve the social skills of children who find difficulty interpreting social cues. Individualized short stories are used to help the children interpret challenging or confusing social situations. The idea of social stories was created by Carol Gray in the early 1990's. The idea is to teach about the social world so that in the long run the child will eventually be able to apply and/or understand social situations.

Below are 2 social stories that my colleague Eleni Louvrou helped me put together. I used these with my student to explain social situations that triggered anxiety. A fantastic website that explains more on social stories and provides some models to help create them is http://www.thegraycenter.org/ . If you have developed any great social stories for your students, please share in a comment below-Angelik.

Time Out

In the classroom there is a time out chair. Sometimes teachers send children to time out.

Time does not mean you are in trouble. The teacher sends children to time out so that they can think about their behavior. Some children go to time out to think about what they did instead of what they were supposed to be doing. This is very important. If children don’t listen or don’t do what the teacher has asked, the child will go to time out to think. This is a good idea.

It is ok to go to time out. Time out gives you a chance to think about what you did. If I go to time out I will try to stay calm because I know that time out does not mean that I am in trouble. I will try to remember that time out is a place to think about my behavior.

Teachers’ ways to check what children have learned

There are different ways for teachers to see what children know. Some teachers ask children questions in class, some teachers have children do homework and some teachers call upon children to answer questions on the board. Many teachers use all 3 methods to check what children know. This is a good thing. This is to help children learn.

Sometimes when children are asked to answer questions, they may feel angry or embarrassed because they don’t know the answers. When in class, the teacher may ask me a question to answer or come up to the board and answer a question. This may make me feel angry or embarrassed. Feeling angry or embarrassed is ok. When I get called to answer questions I will try my best to answer or tell the teacher “I don’t know” and that I need help. I will try not to become angry or embarrassed because I know answering a question is to help me. This is a smart thing.

When the teacher calls me to answer a question I will try very hard or tell her “I don’t know” and that I need help. I will try to control my anger and not be embarrassed. This is very important to remember.