Most people with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) find social situations very difficult. As typically developing individuals we learn social skills instinctively from our family, teachers, peers and general environment.
Unfortunately people with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) are not able to instinctively learn social and communication skills and can sometimes be the subject of jibes, social mistakes and blunders due to their lack of appropriate social and communication skills.
Autism Social Stories are used as a visual treatment for autism to help people with ASD learn and develop an understanding of social and communication skills.
Autism Social Stories are used by parents, care givers, teachers and other professionals working or involved with children with autism spectrum disorder and related conditions.
Autism Social Stories were originally developed by therapist Gray to help her communicate with the ASD children she was working with, today social skills stories are used more widely as a means of developing social understanding and addressing communication difficulties.
An autism social skills story should introduce appropriate social knowledge, using first person text and visual images to describe the social situation or skill. It explains the how’s and whys of a social setting by answering the “wh” questions – who, where, why, when and what.
An autism social skills story should be made up of four different sentence types, descriptive, perspective, directive and control sentences.
Generally children with an ASD are visual thinkers and learners which means they think in pictures. Therefore when teaching an autistic child it is generally easier to make information as visual as possible, that way the child will find the information easier to understand.
This is why a good autism social skills story will give information through pictures and first person text, each autism social skills story provides clear, concise and accurate information about what is happening in a specific social situation. The social skills story acts as role model for autistic children, helping them understand and cope with social situations and address communication difficulties effectively.
To learn more about Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Social Skills, as well as how social skills stories can help children with an ASD visit http://www.autismsocialstories.com
For information on Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Social Skills, as well as downloads of Autism Social Stories visit any of the following sites
Research suggests that 1 in every 150 children born will be on the autism spectrum disorders.
Boys are generally 4 times more likely to be autistic. The reason for this is unconfirmed although there are theories on the reasons.
Some research into autism identifies chemical imbalances in the brain as one of the reasons for autism. These imbalances are believed to be caused by something in our genes. However recent research into autism suggests is not the fault of a single gene (an autism gene) but a combination of genes.
Autism can not be cured but can be treated, medication is given to control some autism symptoms like aggression, seizure, and other related behavior issues connected to autism symptoms.
Autism is a triad of developmental deficits; Autism symptoms:
Social deficits
Communication deficits
Imagination and interaction deficits
Mostly autism is treated with therapies such as, speech therapy, occupational therapy, music therapy, medications, dietary changes and vision therapy.
By the time an autistic child reaches their teens, they should already be receiving regular therapy sessions and have appropriate dietary and medication needs under control.
What are teens with autism like?
Looking at autism and its effects on teenagers, how can they be treated…
…Due to how the brain of an autistic individual processes information a teen with autism may strike you as weird or odd.
Typically autism and its effects on teenagers is similar to those on younger children they will lack eye contact have trouble making and maintaining friendships. Find conversations difficult, prefer to be alone, have difficulties joining in activities and lack imagination.
The autistic teenager may be sensitive to light, touch, sound and smells they may avoid being touched and shrug away from physical closeness making relationships difficult.
The autistic teenager may be passive and withdrawn.
On the other hand they may be aggressive display tantrums, shout and generally be difficult to control which can cause stress within the classroom and home as the autistic teenager grows so does their strength and capabilities to be destructive.
Self harm can become a very real issue in teens with autism.
Many teens with autism may continue to have intellectual and learning problems. They may lack the ability to express their emotions like anger, fear and frustration in ways that are acceptable, they might express themselves in ways that are inappropriate.
Some teens with autism will have trouble with their physically changing body and emotions due to the normal hormonal changes associated with puberty.
Research into autism suggests teenagers with autism respond well to help with social skills training.
Social skills training for teenagers with autism helps reduce the anxieties and explain what is happening to their changing feelings and bodies.
Autism social skills training for teenagers with autism can be done through the use of autism social skills stories.
Autistic teenagers respond well to autism social skills stories finding them clear precise and easy to understand. No matter what the issue implementing an autism social skills story can help alleviate the stress and anxiety felt by the autistic teenager.
Studies into autism and its effects on teenagers showed those teens with implemented social skills stories were socially more able to cope than those without implemented social skills stories.
What are teens with autism like?
Teens with autism can find coping methods and behavioral strategies by using autism social skills stories. The social skills story gives focus to key points and helps the teenager with autism find answers and techniques for those situations the struggle with.
Autism social skills stories can be immediately downloaded to help the teenager with autism cope and manage behaviors including self harm, masturbation, swear words, social kissing, appropriate touching, calming down solutions and personal hygiene issues, as well as various other topics teenagers with autism will find difficult.
Research suggests that 1 in every 150 children born will be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders.
Boys are generally 4 times more likely to be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. The reason for this is unconfirmed although there are theories on the reasons.
Some research into the reasons for autism identifies chemical imbalances in the brain as one of the reasons for autism. These imbalances are believed to be caused by something in our genes. However recent research suggests autism is not the fault of a single gene (an autism gene) but a combination of genes.
Autism can’t be cured but can be treated, medication is given to control some autism symptoms like aggression, seizure, and other related behavior issues connected to autism symptoms.
Autism is a triad of developmental deficits; Autism symptoms:
Social deficits
Communication deficits
Imagination and interaction deficits
Mostly autism is treated with therapies such as, speech therapy, occupational therapy, music therapy, medications, dietary changes and vision therapy.
By the time an autistic child reaches their teens, they should already be receiving regular therapy sessions and have appropriate dietary and medication needs under control.
What are teens with autism like?
How autism has an effect on teenagers and how can they be treated…
…Due to the triad of developmental deficits the autistic individual will NOT process information in the normal manner and will struggle with things we take as granted, this can make the teen with autism appear odd at times even weird!
Therefore looking at how autism has an effect on teenagers – typically the teen with autism may lack appropriate social awareness skills and have trouble making and maintaining friendships. The teen with autism may find conversations difficult, prefer to be alone, have difficulties joining in activities and lack imagination.
The autistic teenager may be sensitive to light, touch, sound and smells they may avoid being touched and shrug away from physical closeness making relationships difficult.
The autistic teenager may be passive and withdrawn.
On the other hand they may be aggressive display tantrums, shout and generally be difficult to control which can cause stress within the classroom and home as the autistic teenager grows so does their strength and capabilities to be destructive.
Self-harm can become a very real issue in teens with autism.
Many teens with autism may continue to have intellectual and learning problems. They may lack the ability to express their emotions like anger, fear and frustration in ways that are acceptable, they might express themselves in ways that are inappropriate.
Some teens with autism will have trouble with their physically changing body and emotions due to the normal hormonal changes associated with puberty.
Research suggests teenagers with autism respond well to help with social skills training for autism.
Social skills training for teenagers with autism helps reduce the anxieties and explain what is happening to their changing feelings and bodies.
Social skills training for teenagers with autism can be done through the use of autism social skills stories.
Autistic teenagers respond well to autism social skills stories finding them clear precise and easy to understand. No matter what the issue implementing an autism social skills story can help alleviate the stress and anxiety felt by the autistic teenager.
Studies into the autism effects on teenagers showed those teens with implemented social skills stories for teenagers were socially more able to cope than those without implemented social skills stories for teenagers.
What are teens with autism like?
Teens with autism can find coping methods and behavioral strategies by using autism social skills stories. The social skills story gives focus to key points and helps the teenager with autism find answers and techniques for those situations the struggle with.
Autism social skills stories can be immediately downloaded to help the teenager with autism cope and manage behaviors including self-harm, masturbation, swear words, social kissing, appropriate touching, calming down solutions and personal hygiene issues, as well as various other topics teenagers with autism will find difficult.
For immediate downloads of social stories for helping the autism effects on teenagerscan be found at :
Typically children with autism will have social deficits, these are common in autism and will mean that the child may need direct help to teach them social awareness skills and behaviours.
Social stories are short descriptive stories which give information to individuals that struggle to understand social situations. For example social situations such as: asking questions, respecting personal space and making friends.
They are also used to teach social awareness and help with communication difficulties.
So what does a social skills story look like?
It should be visual, using visual images and short sentences to describe the skill or situation.
The autism social skills story should provide positive re-enforcement and information
The autism social skills story can be used to prepare for upcoming changes, or social situations and events
The autism social skills story should focus on the key points and remove un-necessary language
The autism social skills story should be written in first person text and always be from the autistic individuals perspective.
The autism social story should be portable, printable, editable and easy to implement.
All autistic individuals should be able to use social stories to help them cope with skills and situations that they find difficult.
Modifications can be made to make the social story easier for individuals with autism to use, we all use different terminology, and no two individuals with autism will ever be the same.
How do I use social skills stories with my child?
The social skills story can be easily implemented and needs NO formal training to use.
Typically children on the spectrum are visual thinkers, this means that they think in pictures and will generally use speech as their secondary language. The social story uses images or pictures with small pieces of text to describe a situation or skill.
The skill is broken into small easy to understand sections, and appropriate images are used to visually show the skill in a manner that is easier to comprehend. The social story should answer the ever important “wh” questions - who, what, why, when and where as wll as “HOW” and will offer an insight into the thoughts, feelings and emotions of others which is a marked area of weakness in most children with autism.
After careful observations parents and teachers should be able to determine which activities, skills and behavioours the child on the spectrum is struggling with and an appropriate social story can be introduced.
Parents and teachers can implement the social skills story to help the child on the spectrum learn or to re-enforce a skill. The social story will act like a visual framework or plan of the skill or behaviour.
To learn more about social stories and to obtain appropriate downloads visit:
Having deficits with social skills like hygiene and self-help skills is problematic.
For many individuals with autism spectrum disorder learning social skills can be confusing and at times even painful!
This is due to autistic sensory processing issues and the Triad of autistic impairments or social skills deficits, which are common symptoms for most individuals with autism spectrum disorder.
Having autistic sensory processing issues can mean your child is hyper or hypo sensitive to stimuli – touch, sound, taste, smell and visual sensations. For example even a simple hygiene skill like brushing your teeth can cause discomfort even actual pain.
The triad of autistic impairments or social skills deficits; means your child WILL struggle with social, communication and imagination skills – like hygiene and self-help skills.
Therefore Autism hygiene and self-help skills will need direct teaching. This can be achieved using visual supports such as - social stories, visual social story cards, flash cards and PECS
For example; Jason is a fourteen year old autistic teen, he is of average intelligence and has good verbal skills.
Jason is going through puberty and has started to sweat, which can be quite unpleasant for those around Jason.
Jason’s lack of personal hygiene has become an issue in class with his peers. But for Jason a lack of personal hygiene is NOT an issue and he is oblivious to the need for better hygiene he appears NOT TO NOTICE the name calling.
But Jason is becoming distressed and confused by the social isolation he is now experiencing.
As a result Jason has become prone to aggressive outburst, due to his lack of understanding of the social isolation he is suffering, this is having a knock on affect his peers now stay away from Jason – one because he is smelling bad and two because he is becoming aggressive. This circle needs to be broken, but for those with autism it can be difficult lacking social knowledge and social skills can make it difficult for an autistic teen like Jason to understand and read other peoples thoughts, body language and verbal and non-verbal communications.
Teaching autism social skills like hygiene and self-help skills USING autism social stories is beneficial and works.
Autism social stories ARE descriptive Intervention Strategies which have been used for around twenty years to HELP those with autism better understand and learn social, communication and imagination skills and behaviors.
Social skills stories, like the one INTRODUCED to Jason can answer the “wh” questions – who, what, why, where and when and “HOW” as well as give an insight into the communications – verbal and non-verbal, thoughts, feelings and emotions shown and expressed by others.
Which in Jason’s case was the sweat making him smelly, which caused social isolation and the knock on affects, the autism social skills story helped show Jason how he could right the situation and thus stop the social isolation which was making him un-happy.
The autism social skills story was used to explain to Jason why he was sweating and why this was causing his peers to stay clear of him and how he could put things right.
Teaching autism social skills like hygiene and self-help skills can and is made easier using social stories. Social stories use visual images/pictures to show the skill or situation in detail as well as first person text in a manner that most autistic individuals CAN understand.
To learn more about visual social skills story cards and autism social skills stories visit:
Looking into ways of working with children on the autism spectrum…
ASD - Autism spectrum disorder is a pervasive developmental disorder that affects more boys than girls. ASD – Autism Spectrum Disorder is the one of the most common childhood disorders.
A vast majority of children on the autism spectrum display sensory processing issues and are hypersensitive to stimuli like noise, light, touch, feel and smells.
Sensory processing issues are common to autism. Individuals with an ASD will also have the triad of autistic impairments:
The triad of autistic impairments are deficits in:
Social interaction skills
Communication skills
And Imagination skills
These deficits can make teaching a child with autism difficult.
Generally children on the autism spectrum prefer routines and structures and can become anxious and stressed when their routine is changed even in a small way.
Therefore when working with children on the autism spectrum it is normally a good idea to:
Organize the autistic child’s day into a set routines, this can be done using a visual schedule or timetable; that the child can refer to at regular intervals.
Using a visual schedule will reassure the autistic child of structure and routine, taking away any uncertainty, thus reducing stresses.
Try to avoid routinechanges wherever possible. However if routines change it is advisable to show these changes on the visual schedule whenever possible.
It is also advisable to use supports like autism social skills stories to help explain any changes, which will reduce stress and help make the less predictable more routine.
A social skills story will show the change toroutine and answer the important “wh” questions who, where, why, when and what, as well as “HOW” reducing stress and showing possible outcomes allowing the child on the spectrum to rehearse the change making them more comfortable with the change.
For the majority of teachers working with children on the autism spectrum using visual timetables, flash cards and autism social skills stories is very effective.
Autism social skills stories are easy to implement and need no formal training to use.
Sometimes when routines change a child on the spectrum can become aggressive, anxious, stressed and confused. Therefore it is recommended an autism social skills story should be implemented prior to the change.
For example a temporary teacher; prior to the change an autism social skills story can be put in place to make the autistic child aware of the change and prepare them for the situation, this can help alleviate some of the anxiety and stress.
The autism social skills story is also an excellent autism resource method for sudden changes like a teachers illness, unexpected visitors at home, a doctors appointment etc..
The social skillsstory will give clear focus on the key points giving the child with autism clear and precise instruction and information alleviating the anxiety they will be feeling.
The autism social skills story is also used to teach vital social skills and re-enforce already learned behaviors such as personal hygiene, shopping trips, hospital appointments, hair cuts and other issues such as bedtime, shared reading, death the list is endless.
Download autism social skills stories for your autistic child from:
Looking into Autism communication and what it means for your child on the spectrum
All children with autism will have communication difficulties with both verbal and non-verbal communication this is a common symptom of autism.
Did you realize that up to 50 percent of children with autism may never develop speech! And that many others will only develop early communication skills.
Research shows us that autistic children rarely engage in effective communication.
Looking at communication….
When we think of speech – language we refer to the body of words, the formations of sounds, as well as the structures and forms used to construct speech.
Communication on the other hand can occur either verbally through speech or non-verbally through the use of spoken words, gestures, signs, or by pointing to printed words or symbols.
To communicate effectively, we must firstly be able to understand why we need to communicate with others, have the desire to communicate, have somebody to communicate with, have something to communicate about, and have a means of expressing ourselves.
With typically developing children we will no doubt notice them go through some stages of communication. For example as a typically developing child grows he/she will begin to explore his/her environment and start to understand the cause and effect around them.
For example when they are thirsty they can point to the fridge or a cup…When they are wanting a cuddle or are tired they may raise both hands to picked up.
However this is not the case with a child on the spectrum. So taking a closer look into autism communication, a child with autism spectrum is rarely inquisitive, and typically will show a lack of interest in their surroundings.
A child with autism spectrum will also lack effective eye contact which will make learning communication very difficult.
By the time a non-verbal autistic child starts school, they may already have seen a speech therapist to establish a program to aid with the development of effective communication.
The speech therapist will need to determine some appropriate objectives and goals, a base level of communication will be established by carefully observing the child within the school setting.
In certain cases it may be necessary for the child on the spectrum to learn a new form of communication. For example the child may cry or scream when they need something and this is their form of communication. But this is not going to be effective in a classroom full of children. Consequently, a new form of communication will need to be established.
Research shows us that the vast majority of both verbal and non-verbal autistic children are visual thinkers and learners, and will respond better to visual communication and information.
Consequently, visual intervention strategies should be introduced, such as visual support cards, PECS, flash cards and social skills stories. These visual intervention strategies can be used as a form of autism communication with verbal and non-verbal autistic children.
Autism social stories are short but descriptive pieces of text with appropriate pictures and images to support the story – or instruction. So for example if the new skill is to help the autistic child understand the need for quiet reading at school, the appropriate autism social story would be selected and implemented.
The autism social skillsstory can be used as a role model and visual step by step plan. Using images or pictures the autism social skills story will show the reason why the children are expected to be silent, who is expecting them to be silent and why, as well as the consequence of not being quiet and the consequent or reward for being quiet.
In other words the a social story gives the answers to the important “wh” questions – who, where, why, when and what as well as “HOW” and will also give the child with autism an insight into the thoughts and feelings of others, which is a marked area of difficulty in most children with autism spectrum.
Autistic children tend to be visual learners, which is why studies have shown that autism social stories are an excellent aid in developing good foundations for behavior and social skills for autistic children and adults.
Social skills stories are considered an excellent tool for helping develop communication skills in children with autism spectrum.
A good source of this excellent tool for helping develop communication skills in children with autism spectrum can be found at:
Common to all children with autism spectrum disorder are deficits in social and communication skills.
Autism Intervention Strategies are used for addressing and teaching social and communication skills to children with autism spectrum disorder.
Autism Intervention Strategies such as social skills stories ARE used to give the autistic child visual information in a manner they can understand about any situation that maybe struggling with, find confusing, or stressful.
Typically children with autism are visual thinkers and learners, meaning they think in pictures, making visual autism intervention strategies an ideal autism tool.
Autism Intervention Strategies and Social Skills Stories describe in detail the situation, behaviour or skill that they autistic child is struggling with and give focus the key points: these are the important social cues.
For example social skills stories give information visually with first person text and explain the reactions the individual with autism might expect to occur in the situation. Plus it will give the actions and reactions that might be expected of them, and why.
An autism social skills story answers the “wh” questions - who, where, why, when and what as well as “HOW” and give an insight into the thoughts, feelings and emotions of those around them, helping relieve anxieties and stress.
The goal of an autism social skills story is to increase the autistic person’s understanding of events and situations, therefore making them more comfortable in the situation, as well as suggesting some possibly appropriate responses to the situation.
The major issue for most individuals with autism is a lack of social skills deficits. This means that individuals with autism lack the ability to read facial expression and body language, which can cause some social misunderstandings.
For an individual with autism understanding that others have their own thoughts, feelings, plans, and points of view is difficult, consequently, this can lead to stress and confusion, however Visual Autism Intervention Strategies are designed to help address these issues.
Autism Intervention Strategies and Social Skills Stories ARE an excellent autism resource for helping children with autism spectrum disorder gain vital social and communication.
The autism social skills story provides information in a well structured and consistent manner, using visual images and structured sentence types. The social story acts like a role model, a visual plan of the skill, situation or behaviour being addressed.
A social story can help with various issues for example: Making friends, sharing, using the toilet, potty training, hygiene difficulties as well as other issues like shopping, visiting the dentist or getting a haircut etc.
Social Storiesgive the autistic child direct contact with the appropriate social skills information, through pictures and text as opposed to speech or observation, which appears to be a noticeable weakness in autism spectrum disorder.
To learn more about how an autism social skills story can help your child visit:
The common characteristics of autism spectrum disorder present in all children with autism are social skills deficits.
It is due to their common characteristics of autism social skills deficits that children with autism struggle with the social and communication skills that as typically developing beings we naturally learn.
Social skills autism:
Autistic children have marked difficulties reading body language and facial expressions, this can cause misunderstandings and social blunders.
Typically children with autism will not be interested in the world and people around them. By their first birthday, a normally developing youngster is already trying to imitate words, copy gestures is using simple gestures such as waving bye bye, is grasping fingers, and smiles at people.
Many parents notice a distinct lack of enthusiasm for interaction and generally a lack of eye contact. Kids with autism do not interact with others the way most people do. They might not be interested in other people at all.
Many kids with autism have difficulties with skills such as taking turns and sharing, toilet training, eating habits and saying excuse, child with autism spectrum disorder may to comprehend and fail to understand the importance or indeed why at all they need to learn the skill.
Social skills stories and autism spectrum disorder…Research shows children with autism respond very well to social stories making them excellent tools for re-enforcing and teaching important socialskills.
Success in teaching social skills to children with autism can increase self-confidence and lead to positive results in other areas of the autistic child’s life, like friendships, school and at home.
An autism social story should focus on a particular social situation, skill 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.
Daily life skill social stories for autism children, concentrate on teaching the appropriate social behaviors, explained in the form of a story.
How an autism social skills story is put together:
The social skills story is made up of four different types of sentences: Descriptive, direction, perspective and control.
Descriptive sentences provide information about specific social settings or situations, for example they provide cues to what the person sees, who is involved, and what happens, For example: At lunch time most of the children will go to the dinner hall.
Perspective sentences describe the feelings, emotions, thoughts, and/or mood of other people. Describing the way a situation is viewed by some body else, many kids with autism have difficulties understanding how others see things. For example: Usually, when people are happy, they smile. Smiling makes people feel good.
Directive sentences provide the autistic person with information about what they should try and do, to be successful in the situation. For example: If I stay calm in class, I will learn more.
Control sentences provide the autistic youngster with how, for example: I can count to ten and calm down.
To download Daily life skill social stories for autism children immediately visit one of our many sites:
Autism social skills stories are used as an autism resource to help teach and re-enforce social skills to kids with autism.
Written from the child’s perspective in simple language with appropriate images the autism social skills story will describe in detail giving key focus to the main points any situation, task or event the child is struggling with.
Social skills stories can be used in various situations to help the autistic child find comprehension of the situation and thus help the autistic child develop an understating and coping method for the situation.
Used as valuable autism resources for many years autism social skills stories are used to help teach social skills to kids with autism in the home, school and in social surroundings.
For example, autism social skills stories can help a child prepare for upcoming changes in routine, or learn appropriate social interactions for situations that they encounter.
Research confirms kids with autism benefit from using autism social skills stories to help them deal with those situations they find confusing and difficult to cope with like, good eating habits, friendships, pretend play or hygiene difficulties like showering, hair washing getting a hair cut, visiting the dentist and so on.
To download beneficial expertly written social skills stories for kids with autism as well as other beneficial autism resources visit:
Autism social skills stories are used as an autism resource to help teach and re-enforce social skills to kids with autism.
Written from the child’s perspective in simple language with appropriate images the autism social skills story will describe in detail giving key focus to the main points any situation, task or event the child is struggling with.
Social skills stories can be used in various situations to help the autistic child find comprehension of the situation and thus helping the autistic child develop an understating and coping method for the situation.
Used as valuable autism resources for many years autism social skills stories are used to help teach social skills to kids with autism in the home, school and in social surroundings.
For example, autism social skills stories can help a child prepare for upcoming changes in routine, or learn appropriate social interactions for situations that they encounter.
Research confirms kids with autism benefit from using autism social skills stories to help them deal with those situations they find confusing and difficult to cope with like, good eating habits, friendships, pretend play or hygiene difficulties like showering, hair washing getting a hair cut, visiting the dentist and so on.
To download beneficial expertly written social skills stories for kids with autism as well as other beneficial autism resources visit:
Recent research into teaching social skills to autistic children suggests that autistic children tend to learn more effectively when the teaching is tailored more to their specific needs.
For example James is a six year old autistic boy, educated in mainstream education. James was having difficulties understanding white board lessons. James complained the light hurt his eyes and would become aggressive and disrupt the lesson.
After an initial assessment James was given visual supports for autism to use in the lesson. The LSA working with James was given an appropriate social skills story to explain to James how and why the white board is used within the classroom.
James was able to understand the autism social skills story and adapted to its use. The LSA was able to help James use the autism social story each time the white board was used within the class which eased his tension and made the whole classroom a happier place for the other students and James to learn.
James needed help learning how to behave within the classroom when things were not quite as he would like.
A social skills story can be used for various situations any autistic child is struggling to understand.
Teaching social skills to autisticchildren need not be fraught with obstacles any longer.
By implementing various aids available to autistic educators and parents teaching social skills to autistic children like James is made simpler and more affective.
Aids like social skills stories PECS cards, Flash cards and schedules you can really help an autistic child find coping methods and strategies for those situations they struggle to comprehend.
Children with autism spectrum disorder will often struggle to make and maintain friendships.
Their unusual behaviors and communication difficulties can often be misread, which can on occasions leave the autistic child open to bullying and taunts.
An autistic child will generally not understand non-verbal communications and will lack the ability to mind read or read facial and body language.
The autistic child may be literal and not respond in the expected way to criticism, sarcasm, jokes, wit and humor which again can lead to social mistakes and the inability to make and maintain friendships.
Therefore teaching children with autism how to make friends can be difficult. Research suggests that teaching children with autism can be made easier with the introduction of social skills stories.
A well written social skills story can be used for teaching children with autism how to make friends. The autism social skills story will explain how the autistic child should act and what will be expected of them and what they can expect from others.
The social skills story can teach and re-enforce vital social skills needed for “everyday” as well as all other social situations, events, skills and occasions.
The social skills story is not only used for teaching children with autism how to make friends but also for other skills like teaching personal hygiene, how to behave at school and more.
For immediate access to 100 autism social skills stories visit:
Death is a natural part of life everything living must die at some time.
As a normally developing person we can appreciate this fact, however unfair, unexpected and devastated we may feel.
With autism this rational reasoning is missing, being autistic and dealing with death is for some very confusing and can be very stressful. Sometimes being autistic and dealing with death can mean the reverse, we may be grieving and our autistic loved one will carry on as before oblivious to our grief and pain.
Death will never happen at a perfect time rehearsed and pain free..
This is where some caregivers, parents and autistic educators find relief in social skills stories.
This autism resource can be easily adapted to suit all eventualities, an autism social skills story will explain what death is, why it happens and why we grieve.
The autistic individual can use the autism resource as instruction, friend and guide at this difficult time.
Evidence shows that being autistic and dealing with death can be manages and helped using autism social skills stories. By implementing an autism social story you will give your autistic person a means to comprehend what has happened, why and how they can expect others to act as well as how others will expect them to act.
The autism social story will help make them more comfortable in and with the situation and suggest possible behaviors.
The autism social story can be simply implemented and adapted to suit different ages and abilities, autism social skills stories can be used for a variety of circumstances, events and skills.
The internet now makes it possible to download suitable social skills stories quickly and easily allowing you time to grieve.
To download suitable social skills stories covering awkward topics such as death visit:
Social skills storiesare used to teach and re-enforce social skills to children with autism.
A social skills story is a short pictorially rich descriptive piece of text, written from the autistic child’s point of view.
The social stories autism can be used for a variety of situations, for example; a special event or situation, a task or activity such as eating in a restaurant, visiting a dentist or hospital appointment.
They can help children with autism prepare for a change to routing or teach them how to interact with others appropriately.
The social stories autism give the autistic child time to prepare for whatever situation is coming up or help them learn a social skill. They give the autistic child time to understand and rehearse the situation.
So when the actual event happens for example a dental visit the autistic child is prepared and can use the social skills story to help them cope with the event.
The social skills story uses four main sentence types:
Descriptive
Directive
Perspective
Control
These four sentence types make up the social skills story. The social skills story is always written in the first person, present tense and from the autistic child’s point of view.
The social skills story should always give key focus to the main points of the story.
Social stories autism should be pictorially rich as autistic children are visual learners.
One young autistic boy was reported saying “Now Ben knows how to do recess”. This was a hurdle for Ben; he had found recess a challenge up till an autism social skills story was introduced; now Ben has a great recess time, without any melt downs and aggressive mood swings, which had been a real problem for staff.
This is just one instance of how an autism social skills story can benefit an autistic child.
Children with autism can use autism social skills stories for all situations they are struggling with at home or at school. Just like the autistic boy mentioned above, Ben used an autism social skills story to help him manage recess…
To download 100 autism social skills stories visit:
Shopping is a normal “everyday” activity; we think nothing of hopping on a bus or in the car and going to the shop.
However, this normal everyday activity can be a complete nightmare to children with autism and autistic parents.
Autism spectrum disorder is a disorder affecting the brain and social development of the individual on the autism spectrum disorder scale.
If your child is on the autism spectrum disorder scale taking them shopping can be stressful and will need careful planning.
Children with autism are very sensitive to stimuli affecting, touch, smell, light and sound; making shopping an anxious and often painful experience.
Things we do not even notice like the strip lights in the shop, or spotlights above some displays can hurt their eyes. The bright lights in the fridges or flashing signs can all be autism anxiety triggers.
The smell of the shop, the fresh food display, aromas from perfumes, soaps, deodorant and the smell from a flower stand. Smell of the stale air in the shopping mall, the smell of the perfume the lady at the checkout is wearing; the aftershave of the man behind you, the smell of the gum the little girl in front of you is chewing. The smell from the bakers shop to us tempting and yummy to an autistic child can all be autism anxiety triggers.
The sound of the checkout, the loud speakers, people chatting, a shrill laugh, the drone of the escalator, the ping of the lift, children laughing, giggling a baby crying, a mobile phone ring all normal noises we shut out and put into the background.
But to an autistic child these noises can be overwhelming and frightening.
Children with autism don’t process sensations in the same way we do and although to us these normal everyday sounds are ok to them they can be dreadful.
Touch is a big issue also with children with autism, some autistic children do not like being touched, and in a busy bustling shop sometimes this can not be avoided!
As a parent your child’s safety is always your first thought; in a busy supermarket, what do you do when that child won’t let you hold their hand? How do you keep that child safe?
Autistic children are sensitive to touch; they may dislike rough material, silky material, and bubbly feeling fabric. They may dislike the feel of the chair in the cafe or the cold metal table.
The journey to theshop on the bus the uncomfortable fabric of the seat the sound of the engine the lights the buzzer the chatter the laughter, a mum telling of her child, a cry a mobile phone ring all can cause autistic anxiety triggers.
So how are you going to make this normal everyday activity less stressful and painful for your child?
A good starting point is to have these autistic anxiety triggers in mind before setting out on a shopping trip, choose a less busy day, and prepare your child for the trip.
A good place to begin is with social stories for children with autism. Social stories are an excellent autism resource for teaching social skills like “I can go shopping” to an autistic child-giving clear focus to the key points the autism social skills story will focus on the main points and give clear instruction on how, why, where and when we shop.
Helping the child make sense and feel more comfortable with the shopping trip, a good social skills story will prepare the autistic child for the shopping trip and find coping strategies and methods of dealing with the anxious moments and fears the autistic child will have.
Autistic parents use social stories for children with autism going shopping as well as other stories to help their child cope with social skills, personal care, events and all of life’s normal and not so normal happenings and situations.
Download this autism resource social stories for children with autism going shopping and other autism social skills stories from
No parent likes to hear that there is something wrong with their child. Hopeless self blame, guilt and anger are all common and natural emotions all part of the beginnings of life as autism parents
There is as yet no proof to the cause of autism spectrum disorder and research continues into this complex disorder.
Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder, affecting four times more boys than girls.
There is no cure for autism, but there are services and autism resources available to help with the symptoms of autism.
The symptoms of autism will vary between autistic individuals from low functioning autism where speech is severely delayed or may never actually happen; with the individual likely to also have learning disabilities.
To the symptoms of autism; such as asperger syndrome or high functioning autism where the individual will have average or above average IQ this set of autistic individuals are often referred too as the little professor or geeks!
Wherever on the scale you child falls within autism spectrum disorder scale, all autistic children will have the same triad of impairments:
Social deficits
Communication deficits
Interaction, imagination deficits
Mother’s day is of cause one of those days as a parent that we will expect our children to act in a certain way.
As a growing child you would have picked up social cues from your parents, peers and the environment and the realization of how Mother’s day affects our Mum’s is learned.
We learned in a number of ways through school, making cards, through our environment the shops being full of Mother’s day posters, presents, cards and flowers, to in the home Dad cooking breakfast, giving Mum a card and spoiling her on her special day etc
This knowledge of Mother’s day we take into our own family setting and our children will like we did realize what Mother’s day is and what is expected of them.
However this soaking up of social knowledge is missing in autistic individuals and without prompting and directly teaching social skills an autistic child will fail to understand. They will likely ignore the social cues such as cards, posters and presents, and ignore subtle cues like Mummy loves flowers.
Try not to be upset with your autistic youngster autism is a social impairment and unless you come right on out and say it they just aren’t going to get the hint!
Try introducing an autism social skills story explaining about being Mum, include a social skills story on Mother’s day and chances are you will get a Mother’s day card.
Social skills need to be taught directly and this is achieved through the use of autism social skills stories.
These clever expertly written social skills stories are used for a variety of situations like Mother’s day, Easter, Thanks giving, Christmas and for events like weddings, or even a trip to the dentist, the zoo a party and for daily life skills like showering, going to the toilet and eating habits.
Download and begin giving your autistic child social cues and teach social behaviors that a normally developing child can learn naturally, this will help with social anxieties and isolation.
Being autism parents with anxiety and stress can be helped when social skills stories are used.
Research suggests that 1 in every 150 children born will be on the autism spectrum disorders.
Boys are generally 4 times more likely to be autistic. The reason for this is unconfirmed although there are theories on the reasons.
Some research into autism identifies chemical imbalances in the brain as one of the reasons for autism. These imbalances are believed to be caused by something in our genes. However recent research suggests autism is not the fault of a single gene (an autism gene) but a combination of genes.
Autism can not be cured but can be treated, medication is given to control some autism symptoms like aggression, seizure, and other related behavior issues connected to autism symptoms.
Autism is a triad of developmental deficits; Autism symptoms:
Social deficits
Communication deficits
Imagination and interaction deficits
Mostly autism is treated with therapies such as, speech therapy, occupational therapy, music therapy, medications, dietary changes and vision therapy.
By the time an autistic child reaches their teens, they should already be receiving regular therapy sessions and have appropriate dietary and medication needs under control.
What are teens with autism like?
What are the autism affects on teenagers and how can they be treated?
Due to how the brain of an autistic individual processes information a teen with autism may strike you as weird or odd.
The autism affects on teenagers are similar to those on children they will lack eye contact have trouble making and maintaining friendships. Find conversations difficult, prefer to be alone, have difficulties joining in activities and lack imagination.
The autistic teenager may be sensitive to light, touch, sound and smells they may avoid being touched and shrug away from physical closeness making relationships difficult.
The autistic teenager may be passive and withdrawn.
On the other hand they may be aggressive display tantrums, shout and generally be difficult to control which can cause stress within the classroom and home as the autistic teenager grows so does their strength and capabilities to be destructive.
Self harm can become a very real issue in teens with autism.
Many teens with autism may continue to have intellectual and learning problems. They may lack the ability to express their emotions like anger, fear and frustration in ways that are acceptable, they might express themselves in ways that are inappropriate.
Some teens with autism will have trouble with their physically changing body and emotions due to the normal hormonal changes associated with puberty.
Research suggests teenagers with autism respond well to help with social skills training.
Social skills training for teenagers with autism helps reduce the anxieties and explain what is happening to their changing feelings and bodies.
Autism social skills training can be done through the use of autism social skills stories.
Autistic teenagers respond well to autism social skills stories finding them clear precise and easy to understand. No matter what the issue implementing an autism social skills story can help alleviate the stress and anxiety felt by the autistic teenager.
Studies into the autism affects on teenagers showed those teens with implemented social skills stories were socially more able to cope than those without implemented social skills stories.
What are teens with autism like?
Teens with autism can find coping methods and behavioral strategies by using autism social skills stories. The social skills story gives focus to key points and helps the teenager with autism find answers and techniques for those situations the struggle with.
Autism social skills stories can be immediately downloaded to help the teenager with autism cope and manage behaviors including self harm, masturbation, swear words, social kissing, appropriate touching, calming down solutions and personal hygiene issues, as well as various other topics teenagers with autism will find difficult.
Generally there are two main issues with toilet training an autistic child. The first being fear, the second being the autistic child is not aware of the need to go toilet, or what is expected of them when they do need to go toilet.
Let’s look therefore at these issues:
So how do I toilet train an autistic child? Well let’s first look at fear. Autistic children are sensitive and the sound of the flushing toilet can sometimes hurt their ears or frighten them.
To toilet train an autistic child, you need to remove this fear. Try using a potty instead of the toilet. Have the potty in a different part of the house maybe away from the toilet. Your autistic child may be scared of the toilet itself. So by having a potty in a different area you remove the fear.
Flush the content of the potty without your autistic child in the room.
The flip side to this is that perhaps your autistic child is obsessed with the flush action of the toilet and wants to repeatedly flush.
A good idea to help this is for an adult to demonstrate how to use the toilet and then flush only once. An autism social story for flushing the toilet can help combat this need to constantly flush.
As in the case of Zac a preschool autistic child with toileting issues. Zac’s mother was introduced to autism social skills stories. After the autism social skills storywas put in place Zac was more comfortable with the situation and it wasn’t long before Zac’s mother reported success
Sometimes autistic children that are very sensitive have difficulties with anxieties related to the toilet and can become stressed which results in the need to use the toilet not being felt, subsequently accident occur.
To combat this situation remove the fear and anxiety by trying to be more relaxed about the toilet, demonstrate how to use the toilet and try not to make using the toilet a big issue, hold back talk less and reward positive behavior however small.
Take small steps,Rome was not built in a day! Break down the process of going to the toilet into small achievable steps with reward for positive behaviors.
Autistic children learn visually therefore as with Zac introducing autism social skills stories will visually show the autistic toddler what is expected of them and how they can achieve this.
A normally developing child will learn social skills as going to the toilet from their parents and the environment, the autistic toddler on the other hand does not, they lack interest in their environment and need to be taught vital social skills directly.
This is where parents and teachers need appropriate support in the form of autism social stories to teach and re-enforce autism social skills such as toilet training
Download autism social skills stories for potty / toilet training now from:
Social interactions for a normally developing child come naturally. They can sustain conversation, have imagination and can interact effectively.
However for kids with autism the ability to make and keep friends does not come easy.
Children on the autism spectrum have impaired abilities with social and communication skills, making them easy targets for bullies. They lack the ability to understand non-verbal communications such as facial expressions and body language.
Children on the autism spectrum also have difficulties with language. They do not understand jokes, humor, wit, puns and sarcasm.
Their unusual use of language can also make them appear odd, for example children on the autism spectrum may refer to themselves by name; “Barry wants a drink” rather than “can I have a drink”. This can make them appear weird to their peers leading to social difficulties.
Kids with autism especially asperger syndrome children do want to be social, but find difficulties with being a good friend.
Research shows that children with autism can learn social skills directly using autism social skills stories. Here is an example of using autism social skills stories to teach autism social skills
Jacob is a year seven autistic student having trouble with the transition from junior to senior school. Jacob is the only autistic student from his junior school to move to his senior school and he knows no body.
An appropriate autism social skills story was put in place to help Jacob make friends. Jacob was able to understand what he needed to do to make and maintain friendships.
Result summary on Jacob showed a vast improvement in Jacob’s behavior in school as his ability to sustain friendships grew with the use of autism social skills stories.
For social skills stories to help your autistic child learn vital social skills on topics like making friends, hygiene issues and other social skills your autistic or asperger syndrome child is struggling with visit:
The “Fun Package” includes:
“The Healthy Eating Guide”
