Research suggests that preschool autistic children do not develop play in the same way as a normally developing youngster.
Preschool autistic children do not interact in the same way as a normally developing child and are not as likely to want to explore their environment.
What is autism?
Autism is a disorder affecting the brain- some of the symptoms of autism are:
Social deficits
Communication deficits
Imagination and Interaction deficits.
So how does this affect preschool autistic children play?
To begin understanding autism play, we first should look at what is meant by play…
Play is spontaneous
Play is imaginative
Play should be fun and enjoyable
Play involves an active role by the person playing
Play can be solitary or with another person
“Preschool autistic children and what is autism”
So how will the symptoms of autism affect the act of play in autistic children?
In normally developing children the use pf play helps with development, for example:
Play has various stages…
Sensory stimulation a baby stimulated and attracted for example to a cot mobile or baby gym.
Exploratory play a youngster playing with Lego, or a cardboard box even. This is how a child begins interacting with their environment. With autistic children this inquisitiveness is missing.
Physical play this includes actually touching others for example, rough and tumble, football and interactive pretend play.
Social play this includes wanting to play with other children, for example on the playground, at the park etc.
Pretend play Make believe play, all normally developing children will engage in pretend play, this is part of development.
Play is a natural process a normally developing child goes through. It helps them explore their thoughts, feelings and interact with their peers and their environment.
In autistic children the need to play and be inquisitive is missing
Autistic children prefer their own company and lack interest in their environment; they preferrepetition to imagination and compulsive play.
Preschool autistic children may not stimulated by a bright colored cot mobile, or play gym, do not want to engage in pretend or rough and tumble play. Lack the inquisitiveness for exploratory play and do not understand why or how to engage in pretend play.
When preschool autistic children begin preschool the differences in behaviors of a normally developing and an autistic child can become apparent.
There are ways as a preschool teacher or parent you can help the autistic child manage their behaviors and experiences at preschool by implementing autism social stories…
Research suggest autistic children respond well to autism social stories and therefore they can be introduced into daily and preschool lives affectively-giving the preschool autistic child clear coping mechanisms and instructions on how to interact with others and perform everyday tasks.
For example how to “pretend play”, “say hi”, “share toys” or perform tasks such as tooth brushing, visiting the doctor, starting preschool and so on…
Autism social stories are available in printable format making sharing them with all responsible in your autistic child’s care easy.
Implementing autism social stories is easy and effective. Research shows autism social stories are widely used with positive affects and results.
For immediate downloads visit one of these main autism sites:
Autism tools can be downloaded and used for various situations and activities.
Teaching social skills to kidswith autism; can be made easier by using the appropriate autism tools…
Kids with autism will need to be taught autistic social skills directly, unlike a normally developing a child, the autistic child will not easily gather social skills from their environment.
An autistic child will lack interest in the activity’s of those around them, and will not have the ability to “mind read” or read the body or facial language of those they come into contact with, neither will they easily understand slang words, nick names and jokes.
Autism tools to help the autistic child or adolescent cope with and understand their environment and those they come into contact with; are downloadable, in the format of autism social skills stories…
Kids with autism rarely initiate imaginative or pretend play with their peers and prefer solitary play. They lack eye contact and find holding and maintaining conversation difficult.
Autistic social skills are taught using autism social skills stories. Teaching Social Skills to Kidswith autism; autistic social skills such as “Having a good conversation”, “Pretend play”, “Friends” and being a good sport.
Research shows kids with autism respond well to autism social skills stories.
These short pieces of text are pictorially rich; kids with autism are visual learners and find the images in autism social skills stories easy to understand.
Autism social skills stories arm the autistic child with instructions in language they will understand. That will help them make sense of any situation, or event, activity they are struggling with or finding stressful.
To download suitable, pictorially rich autism social skills stories immediately visit:
Research and information on autism has shown almost 1 in 500 children in the United States, is autistic.
Information on autism gathered from researchers, scientists and doctors is still to tell us what causes autism and why it is on the increase.
More children with autism are being diagnosed than ever before.
Information on autism shows more boys affected by the condition than girls, almost 80% in fact.
Information on autism all suggests autistic children will have some degree of social and communication deficit.
You may well notice autistic characteristics such as:
Trouble processing information from the environment, autistic children will often find the world they live in confusing and stressful.
Other autistic characteristics you may notice include:
Lack of social skills
Unable to interact with others
The need for repetition
Un-willingness to be touched, avoids eye contact
Preferring their own company
Odd behaviors; like stimming or obsessions with objects or things.
Children with autism also show autistic characteristics in communication difficulties and many autistic children are late to develop speech, for some speech never happens.
Children with autism are often thought of as “odd” by their peers, and while they do not mean to be rude can sometimes come across as such.
Research and information on autism suggests that autistic children can be helped both with communication and social issues by the implementation and use of autism social skills stories.
Autism social skills stories are used effectively for children with autism providing the clear structure and repetition that they need to function.
Autism social skills stories are visual as well as having text, autistic children are mainly visual learners and can process information easier in picture or image format.
All autistic children will benefit from this autism resource-giving them clear precise instruction and coping strategies, helping them make sense of the world we live in.
Download pictorially rich autism social skills stories. And begin giving your autistic child clear coping strategies to help them process and make sense of their world.
Visit any of the sites listed for immediate download of this autism resource:
A normally developing child learns in several different ways:
Visually through sight
Auditory through hearing
kinesthetically through touch or manipulation.
Mainstream schools will normally include a variety of learning techniques, the children will learn visually through reading books and texts. They also learn through listening to their teachers, and through touch or manipulation for example tech., art, textiles etc
Kids with autismspecial needs students they will nearly always be visual learners. However some kids with autism may also be kinesthetic learners and may well benefit form their teacher or helper actually guiding their hand while they undertake tasks.
So with that in mind an autism special needs teacher will need to asses each autistic child individually to determine which method of learning they appear to prefer.
The special needs teacher will then be able to steer the lesson planning for that child to suit their particular method of learning and therefore build on their individual strengths.
One very important thing to remember when planning lessons for the autistic child is their need for repetition Autistic children like repetition and sameness. So this needs to be Kept in mind when setting lessons.
As with a normally developing child autism learning disabilities, can be enhanced by the introduction and implementation of autism social skills stories
Autism social skills stories are used as a tool for teaching kids with autism and special needs vital social information and skills.
By introducing autism social skills stories you will enhance learning skills in the autism special needs student.
Autism learning disabilities can be helped by these excellent visually rich autism social skills stories. They are easily implemented and can be adapted to suit all children.
It is perfectly normal to make a judgment about a person as soon as you meet them. We judge their hair, face, voice even their stance and quickly decide what we like and dislike about the person, before we even get to know them…We can read a persons body language and realize if they are happy, sad, pleased to see us or angry
People with asperger syndrome can find it harder to read the signals that most of us take for granted.This means they find it more difficult to communicate and interact with others which can lead to high levels of anxiety and confusion.
Asperger syndrome is a form of autism.
Autism is a lifelong disability, which affects how a person makes sense of the world.
How they processes information and relate to others. Autism is often described as a spectrum disorder.
This isbecause autism spectrum disorder will affect people in different ways and to varying degrees.
Asperger syndrome has been described as the ‘hidden disability’.
….Because the asperger person will look normal to the outside world. The individual with asperger syndrome will have difficulties in three main areas.
They are: Social interaction, Imagination and communication difficulties
You may have heard them referred to as “the triad of impairments”
Whilst there are some similarities with autism, those people with Asperger syndrome will present less difficulties with speaking and are often of average, or above average, intelligence.
With the right support, encouragement, and social aids people with Asperger syndrome can lead full and independent lives.
One such support you can give an asperger person is in the form of printable asperger social stories
Research has shown that asperger social stories can be regarded as a valuable part of an asperger person’s life Giving them the social know how that the condition renders them without.
Making social acceptance easier and less stressful Asperger social stories are used as a tool for teaching and re-enforcing appropriate behaviors and social skills.
To access and immediately download suitable asperger social skills stories visit one of our many sites PLUS grab your free report Managing your autistic child’s behavior from:www.autismsocialstories.com
Autistic people tend to find difficulties with interpersonal relationships, such as reduced responsiveness or disinterest in other people. They may appear arrogant, be unable to read others body language “Theory of Mind”, and have an impaired ability to relate to others.
Kids with autism; will not normally adopt the anticipatory posture or raise their hands to be carried or picked up.
Kids with autism are not normally cuddly babies, in-fact most autistic babies will stiffen or resist being held, they normally avoid snuggling up. They will normally prefer to be held facing outwards with their back to the person holding them.
Autistic infants will sometimes not recognize their own name or be inconsistent in recognizing it.
Probably the most noticeable symptom is the lack of eye contact. Where as a normally developing child will give and maintain eye contact, autistic infants will look away quickly and avoid eye contact
.
A normally developing child may stare into the mother’s eye noticing their own reflection, autistic infants will show no interest in their reflection and choose not to stare or maintain any eye to eye contact.
Kids with autism will normally not be interested in the normal growing up games like pat-a-cake and incy wincy spider. They will prefer not to be engaged in social interactions choosing not to “wave bye bye to Daddy” and so on
Which of cause will be upsetting and begin to sound alarm bells that perhaps something is not quite right
However, the nature of these impairments can vary…And there are ways you can help your autistic child better cope and manage thoughts and feelings.
One such way is introducing autism social skills stories These are an excellent proven technique for assisting autistic infants with the development of social skills. Helping to promote and maintain autism social skills…
Autism social skills stories Are used with great success, providing the autistic youngster with support and an understanding of what, where, why and when things happen. As well as what they can expect from other as well as what others will be expecting of them.
Autistic infants will want repetition and sameness so by introducing autism social skills stories early enough this will enable you to teach social skills early, like toileting and good eating habits as well as other skills like saying Hi and thank you.
All helping your autistic infant being accepted within their own peer group as well as within today’s society
Kids with autism need to be taught social skills directly, as they do not easily pick up on these skills from their environment like a normally developing child will.
Autistic children tend not to pick up on social skills and are unable to understand body language or facial expressions, which makes interpreting the thoughts and feelings of other’s an impossible task.
Teaching social skills to autistic children can take many forms; one way is through ABA or applied behavior analysis. Another way is through the use of “social skills storiesâ€â€¦.These techniques for helping autistic children is probably the most useful as a parent to understand and implement successfully
It is very important to think about how you will help your child understand the need for certain social skills.
For example if you intend your child to be included in main stream education a certain amount of social skills is important. The ability to wait your turn in class to ask a question, manners, good eating habits and the ability to toilet themselves appropriately for their age.
While most school’s will have thought about asperger classroom accommodations, or autism classroom accommodations, there is still the need for the appropriate social skills to be taught and re-enforced to make your child’s inclusion as easy as possible.
Kids with Autism and AspergerSyndrome are often capable of working at the same level as their peer’s; but are at risk of not being included in a classroom because of behavioral issues or poorly developed social skills.
Teaching social skills to autistic children has become one of the primary focuses when working with autistic children.
Success in teaching social skills can increase self-confidence and lead to positive result in other areas of the classroom and life in general for autistic children.
A good social story will focus on a particular social situation or interaction. A trip to the dentist, moving school, going shopping, or recess - these are all good examples of situations a social story might focus on.
To learn more about autism social storiesand how they can be used successfully as techniques for helping autistic children learn social skills visit us at:
Kids with autism need to be taught autistic social skills directly, as they do not easily pick up on these skills from their environment like a normally developing child will.
Autistic children tend not to pick up on social skills and are unable to understand body language or facial expressions, which makes interpreting the thoughts and feelings of other’s an impossible task.
It is very important to think about how you will help your child understand the need for certain social skills.
For example if you intend your child to be included in main stream education a certain amount of social skills is important. The ability to wait your turn in class to ask a question, manners, good eating habits and the ability to toilet themselves appropriately for their age.
Kids with Autism and Asperger Syndrome are often capable of working at the same level as their peer’s; but are at risk of not being included in a classroom because of behavioral issues or poorly developed social skills.
Teaching social skills to autistic children has become one of the primary focuses when working with autistic children.
Success in teaching social skills to kids with autism can increase self-confidence and lead to positive result in other areas of the classroom and life in general for autistic children.
A good autistic social skills story will focus on a particular social situation or interaction. A trip to the dentist, moving school, going shopping, or recess - these are all good examples of situations a social story might focus on.
The best place to start is by carefully selecting the school which will suit your autistic child the best.
So what questions to ask autism school? Well firstly the journey needs to be established and looked at.
Distance from home is always a big consideration; will your child need transport? How long will they be on the transport? Who is the driver, the escort? Try and arrange prior to the start of school for your child to meet them.
Look in the bus and get a general feel for the space, look at the color of the bus, seats, floor, walls etc. How many seats, the fabric, are they noisy, itchy, soft etc? The steps to get in, noise of the engine, is their an air freshener? The smell in the bus, aftershave of the driver, the escort, autistic children have very sensitive senses and smells can be distressing to them. Do they play the radio in the bus, will this affect your child?
Autistic children are very sensitive and all of these factors will need to be taken into account as well as where they are on the collection list. Who will already, be in the bus, who is collected next, and so on?
Establish the bus rules, try out the seat belts, will you need to buy something soft to wrap around the belt if the fabric is hard, will it rub your autistic child’s skin. Will your child be seated next to the window? Who will be sat next to them?
Find out about the homeward journey again what time will they leave school? In what order are the children dropped? Is it going to be the same driver etc? Repeat all the questions as above for the journey too school.
Ask what happens when the driver or escort are on holiday or away? Who will replace them? Will you get prior notice so that you can explain the change to your child, autistic children like things to remain the same and a simple thing like different driver or seat could cause anxiety and stress.
After you have gathered all the relevant information you will need to establish a social story which will explain what is going to happen to your child.
A good social story (autism social stories) will help your child understand the what, why, where and when of the situation.
You will need to add specific details yourself like the names of the driver the name of the school etc to the story. Choose autism social stories with pictures. Autistic children will take in information a lot easier if it is visually presented.
Autism social stories are an excellent tool for giving your autistic child clear social cues and coping strategies for all those situations they may find difficult, stressful or distressing.
The social story will give your child clear instructions and help them feel more comfortable with and in those situations a social skills story is needed for.
To view an example autism social story visit us at: www.autismsocialstories.com the story link is roughly half way down the page.
As more and more special needs students with autism are coming into mainstream regular classrooms, teachers are faced with the challenge of meeting their needs as well as the needs of all students within their classroom.
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So how do teachers cope with autism in the classroom? Autism and classroom accommodations need to be put in place before the autistic student starts school.
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Nurturing the parent-teacher relationship is key. A meeting with the child’s parents should be held prior to the start of the school year. Parents can help identify the pragmatic skills in the autistic child, learning patterns, current cognitive skills, and the behavioral techniques that are used with the child.
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All autism classroom accommodations should be noted and all the appropriate adults in the child’s care team should be involved, like school speech therapist, occupational therapist, special education teacher.
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Students with autism will often struggle to express what they need or what they don’t understand.
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Autism in the classroom can be helped by using visual cues around the classroom, for example above the bathroom a picture of a toilet, sink with the written word on show also. Using visual cues can help the autistic child quickly identify certain areas, without feeling frustrated.
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Pictures and words should be used all around the classroom to help identify areas such as where coats and lunches are stored, pencils are sharpened, and books are put on the shelf.
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As well as visual cues the teacher should have the appropriate autism social stories
….Autism social stories are designed as a tool for helping parents, teachers of autistic children better cope with challenging and often frustrating behaviors.
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Social stories will act as a best friend to the autistic child…helping them cope with all the daily activities in school, as well as helping with all classroom accommodations and as an aid in pragmatic skills in autistic children.
Autistic children on the whole have issues when it comes to making and keeping friends.
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Sometimes they can find themselves as the targets for bullies, because of their lack of social understanding and on occasion’s odd behavior, language and unusual pre-occupations and tendencies.
Their lack of understanding and ability to respond in socially expected ways to nonverbal cues can lead to conflict or being ignored by others. Children with Asperger’s syndrome will sometimes be extremely literal and may find interpreting and responding to sarcasm or banter difficult….And may well not understand what has been said or done.
Therefore, the sooner an autistic child learns how to make appropriate friendships the better. It can help reduce problems, like bullying and lead to better relationships with people who aren’t on the spectrum.
It is easy as a non-autistic person to forget how complex social skills are;
For example:
• How to enter into other children’s activity
• How to allow another child to enter into your own game or activity
• Knowing when someone needs help, and how to find help, also how to get help from others.
• Giving and receiving compliments at the right time.
• Understanding about positive criticism, when and how to give.
• Being able to accept and handle criticism from others
• Accepting the ideas and suggestions of others, and what to do with them
• Controlling negative situations and turning them into a positive
• Learning how to act appropriately at home and in public
• Understanding body language, and facial expressions
• Understanding and using “nick namesâ€, appropriate use of words, like swear words, or rude gestures and words.
• Taking part in conversation.
• Managing disagreement with compromise instead of aggression or emotional outbursts
• Accepting not everybody will agree with you, and recognizing peoples opinions can at time vary.
• Empathizing with others in both positive and negative situations
• How to leave an activity or situation without causing offense.
Non-autistic children will learn these social skills in an unconscious and intuitive way, by observing and interacting with everyone around them.
However with autism these skills are not normally learnt in such a way, and need to be learnt in a more definite manner.
Using autism social skills stories can increase your child’s ability to make and maintain friendships-by giving your child clear social cues on how to get and keep a friend.
 Plus how to act in all situations and activities, making your child more confident and ultimately helping them to make those friendships they need to fit into their environment.
We all need friends, a food friend can be like gold dust, and by using social skills storiesyour autistic child can maintain normal friendships.
To obtain specific and even personalized social skills stories for your autistic child
Shopping is an essential part of our every day lives, we need to shop. However even a normal task like shopping can become a nightmare for an autistic child.
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Autistic children have difficulties processing the different sensations we all experience in the environment on a daily basis. This is mainly because children on the spectrum can either be hyposensitive (under sensitive) to sensory input in the environment, or hypersensitive (over sensitive) to sensory input in the environment.
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Autistic children may have difficulties blocking out what other people may be able to ignore as background noise, for example a low drone of chatter, the ring of a till, an escalator, the noise of a shopping trolley, the list goes on, all meaningless noises we can filter out and ignore.
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For an autistic child these noises are all equal, they can not shut them off and ignore them in the same way we do. They will be aware of each noise, and added to these noises will be the sudden noise; for example an announcement over the tannoy, or a child scream out someone dropping something, again the list goes on.
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There are not only the noises to consider when shopping with your autistic child. There are also smells; all smells we again ignore, some ones perfume the odour from different foods, like fish or meat a perfume counter.You may find that certain areas of the shop can cause the child to become upset and it could be a certain scent is causing distress.They may find it difficult to distinguish between different smells and be overwhelmed.
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The fluorescent lights in the shop may hurt their eyes, there may be a lot of differing displays, light settings, and the whole visual effect of the shop may be confusing to them.
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Sometimes autistic children can be affected by the feel or touch of different fabrics, trying on new clothes or shoes can sometimes cause pain and distress, coupled with the noise and light sensations this whole experience can cause an autistic child a lot of upset.
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So how as a parent can you help your autistic child cope with these things? One suggestion is the introduction of social stories.
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Social stories can be used as a tool for helping your autistic child understand and deal with all these sensations. Helping them to understand what is going on in the shop, what they can expect and what others will be expecting of them.
A good social story can help you turn what potentially can be a nightmare shopping trip into a bearable experience.
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Autism social stories to help with shopping trips as well as other activities can be downloaded at www.autismsocialstories.com
Children with autism need to be taught social skills directly, as they do not easily pick up on these skills from their environment like a normally developing child will, children with autism tend not to pick up on social skills and are unable to understand body language or facial expressions, which makes interpreting the thoughts and feelings of other’s an impossible task.
It is very important to think about how you will help your child understand the need for certain social skills.
For example if you intend your autistic child to be included in main stream education a certain amount of social skills is important. The ability to wait your turn in class to ask a question, manners, good eating habits and the ability to toilet themselves appropriately for their age.
While most school’s will have thought about asperger classroom accommodations, or autism classroom accommodations, there is still the need for the appropriate social skills to be taught and re-enforced to make your child’s inclusion as easy as possible.
Children with Autism and Asperger Syndrome are often capable of working at the same level as their peer’s; but are at risk of not being included in a classroom because of behavioral issues or poorly developed social skills.
Success in teaching social skills to the autistic child can increase self-confidence and lead to positive result in other areas of the classroom and life in general for an autistic child.
A good social story will focus on a particular social situation or interaction. A trip to the dentist, moving school, going shopping, or recess - these are all good examples of situations a social story might focus on.
To learn more about autism social stories and how they can be used for teaching social skills to autistic children visit us at
As more and more “special needs” students are coming into mainstream regular classrooms, teachers are faced with the challenge of meeting their needs as well as the needs of all students within their classroom.
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So how do teachers cope with autism in the classroom? Autism and classroom accommodations need to be put in place before the autistic student starts school.
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Nurturing the parent-teacher relationship is key. A meeting with the autistic students parents should be held prior to the start of the school year. Parents can help identify the pragmatic skills in the autistic child, learning patterns, current cognitive skills, and the behavioral techniques that are used with the autistic child.
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All autism classroom accommodations should be noted and all the appropriate adults in the care team of the autistic child should be involved, like school speech therapist, occupational therapist, special education teacher.
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Students with autism will often struggle to express what they need or what they don’t understand.
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Autism in the classroom can be helped by using visual cues around the classroom, for example above the bathroom a picture of a toilet, sink with the written word on show also. Using visual cues can help the autistic student quickly identify certain areas, without feeling frustrated.
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Pictures and words should be used all around the classroom to help identify areas such as where coats and lunches are stored, pencils are sharpened, and books are put on the shelf.
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As well as visual cues for the students with autism the teacher should have the appropriate autism social stories
….Autism social stories are designed as a tool for helping parents, teachers of autistic children better cope with challenging and often frustrating behaviors.
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Autism social stories will act as a best friend to the autistic child…helping them cope with all the daily activities in school, as well as helping with all classroom accommodations and as an aid in pragmatic skills in autistic children.
Toilet training can be difficult, but when your child is autistic it can be even harder, autism and going to the bathroom can be a real problem.
Teaching new skills to children with autism/aspergers work best when the steps to the task are organized into simple pieces. Teaching this new skill to an autistic/asperger child must be consistent becoming repetitive and predictable to the child in terms of rewards and consequences.
In order for toilet training to be successful, the child must move from depending on reminders (timed trips to the bathroom) to recognizing the signs of a full bladder and taking the necessary actions him/herself.
Learning to use the toilet is part of socialization….
Most children enjoy the recognition they receive from their parents and other adults when they begin using the toilet as well as the rewards that come their way.
However, young children with autism have trouble applying the same social interaction reason to going to the bathroom. They do not like changing set routines and behaviors and may also not yet be aware of, or able to control their bodies.
Children with autism respond well to repetition….Social stories act as a tool in re-enforcing this, and teaching the autistic child the new skill.
The autism social story can be read as often as needed and will give your autistic child the repetition that is needed when trying to teach a new skill as well being an effective tool for re-enforce an already learnt skill.
Visit us for a comprehensive list of social skill stories for autistic children as well as teens and adults.
Social stories are made up of four types of sentences:
Descriptive sentences, like:
The bell rings at the end of playtime, the children all line up ready to go back to class.
Directive sentences, like:
I am in yellow class, I sit at the front of the class, I listen to my teacher when she is talking
Perspective sentences, like:
When the bell rings at the end of breaktime the children know it is time to go back to class
Control sentences, like:
I will remember to line up quietly at the end of breaktime.
To write a good clear social story you should aim to include all or some of these sentences and try to avoid direct dont’s like do not talk in class, as this is an order, and sometimes an autistic child may find this idfficult. Autistic children live in a literal world and will take everything you say as true.
So for example if you say do not talk in class, this should be followed by unless my teacher asks me too.
For more information on social stories and to see an example visit www.autismsocialstories.com the home of specially written social stories that work
If you have an autistic child, or you work with one in school, chances are you have probably heard about “autism social skills stories.”
What are autism social skills stories? How are social skills stories created?
The ultimate question of cause is will they help your autistic child?
A social skills story is a story written for an autistic person with social skills deficits to help them understand and cope with social interactions or behaviors.
Social skills stories are written by therapists, teachers, parents and other professionals to prepare autistic children and adults for various experiences and situations.
…autism social stories can be written for almost every situation and can be as varied as, shared reading, job interviews, trips to the mall, a dental check-up, and talking in class.
Mostly autism social stories are used to help the autistic person understand what is expected of them in school or family settings.
They are also used to help autistic children plan for transitions, changes, ask appropriate questions, and inter-act with other people.
Social skills stories may contain images, including photos, autistic children respond well to pictorial content, which will make the story’s content and purpose clearer. Autistic children respond well to autism social skills stories and research shows a well written autism social story can help an autistic person control, learn and manage behaviors and skills.
Autistic social skills deficits can be helped by implementing autism social stories to help autistic people feel more comfortable in and gain a better understanding of the world they live in…
At around two years of age a normally developing child will have begun imaginative play. For example they can pretend in play.
A normally developing child will by this age imagine objects are something different, like a lego block, could be an imaginative car, etc..
But with an autistic child this natural progression, will not be present, by this age the autistic child may understand the desire of other people, but will not be able to join in pretend play.
The developing autistic child may well understand the desire of their peer’s to play but will lack the imagination and desire to play with somebody else. The autistic child will probably prefer solitary play, this is normal in autism.
The main area of research into the theory of mind concept is centred around children aged between 3 - 4 years.
With a normally developing child by this age they will have learnt the ability to predict the actions and re-actions of others. But with an autistic child this ability to “mind read” will be missing.
Also their communication will be behind a normally developing child and will be less imaginative. In some cases the autistic child may still not of developed any language. This lack of autism social development can hinder a children with autism and their progression causing unnecessary anxieties when the child reaches school age.
Autism research suggests autistic children benefit from the implementation of autism social stories and they can help children with autism better cope with social understanding of tasks like tooth brushing, shared reading, pretend play and so on..
For more information and immediate download visit:
Autistic children tend to use people as objects, for example an autistic child may take your hand and direct it towards an object they want. The intention here being that you get the object and pass it over to them.
Normally developing children at around a year begin to gesture what they want, this will then lead on to language.
This is known as intentionally bringing something to someone’s notice, the child may point and gaze at the object, or bring it to you so you can take a look too. They will gaze at it, smile and share their pleasure in whatever it is that has taken their fancy.
An autistic child on the other hand may point to the object to get you to give it to them, but wont want to engage you in sharing the object with them.
In other words autistic children are far less likely to gesture or communicate their desire for your attention, or for you to share the object. Communication deficits is a part of autism spectrum disorder…
…Communication deficits can be helped autistic children a re visual learners which means they are far more likely to understand what you are trying to convey when you use visual prompts.
For example if you are wanting to communicate to your autistic child bed time, or dinner time; this can be made easier if you use visual prompts.
Research carried out on children with autism spectrum disorder found that by using autism social stories they can increase the autistic child’s understanding of and make them more comfortable in many situations they are finding hard to cope with.
The autistic child’s ability to learn visually is increased using autism social stories and excellent results were found in the children using autism social stories.
For more information on autism social stories visit:
Does your autistic child have problems with everyday social skills like going to the bathroom? washing their teeth? taking a bath?
Or even social situations, like family gatherings? visiting Grandma?…
Can you remember the last time you happily set off out with your autistic child and was not worried about what was round the corner, eating out, or shopping?
Are you moving house? is someone having a baby? got a new car? got a new dog? has something or someone died? did you get new neighbors?
The list is exhaustive, for us these things although sometimes they come as a shock we cope,we talk to our loved ones and we deal with things.
For an autistic person any slight deviation from their normal habits or routines can really throw them and cause a real panic!
To us this is odd, but to them the way we act is just as odd, if not odder! An autistic mind does not function in the way our minds do. We take in information or events, our minds and brains then logically sort and deal with the issue. In an autistic mind… this just does not happen.
A normal everyday situation to us can be a real anxiety trigger to an autistic mind…they will be thrown into a state of panic and find things to much to cope with.
An autistic person’s life…is like living in a box, everything inside the box is the same the walls are even straight and don’t ever change, you know where you are, you know what to do, it is all even and repetitive this is the reality of being to an autistic person’s mind.
That just isn’t what real life is like, so we need to look at ways to meet in the middle, find an easy ground, find a solution, to help the autistic person cope and deal with our lives and the real world.
One such solution comes in the format of autism social stories…These easily adaptable autism resources have been used for many years by autistic specialists, teachers and parents of autistic individuals to help them find real solutions and coping strategies for those situations, tasks and events they are struggling with.
Autism social stories can be implemented both in the home and school to help manage, teach and control autistic behaviors and issues.
For immediated download of these excellent autism resources and to start with autism social stories visit:
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