social stories

Yes, My daughter has a learning disability and her cognitive skills are well below those of her peers. Her spec ed teacher has put together social stories specific to the situations my daughter has encountered. She even takes digital photos to show examples. They do help.

Could you guys both elaborate on this technique. My dyslexic son has weak social skills in certain situations, as well as a problem with eye contact. We are looking for ways to help him with out making him more self conscious. Thanks!

There are books and websites out involving social stories and the author-carol gray.

Thanks, I just visited Carol Gray’s website. I’m concerned that the books may be too simplistic for my son, and I’d love to see how they are written before ordering. …. He’s 9, and does not have Aspergers. He is a little immature, but appropriate with his friends. His greatest weaknesses are looking at people when he’s talking, particuarly new people and sometimes he doesn’t listen. He has very poor conversational skills unless he’s with one of his best friends. He can be very very uncomfortable entering new groups. The titles of books I saw seemed to be for a child with more severe issues. I think he knows intellectually what to do, but can’t put it into practice. Thanks for any guidance….

Hi Karen N.
Yes the published social stories are too simplistic for your son. You can always make up your own social stories to fit your son’s experiences. Social stories provide a form of mental rehearsal to cope better with troublesome situations and they work well with children with a range of issues and difficulties. I would also recommend comic strip conversations- these would involve putting situations into visual comic strip form and depicting actions, verbalizations (in talk bubbles), and thoughts (thought bubbles). I’ll often add emotions and motivations. They does help children with perspective taking (“so when this guy said that- what did the other guy think? But did he say that?” etc) and also the sequences involved in social interactions. Carol Gray has a book on comic strip conversations, but you can use your own version and suite it to your child’s needs- just like the social stories. Have fun.