A social skills story is...
"Everyday", "normal" situations activities and skills for the majority of us come naturally. As typically developing individuals we have been programmed to watch, listen and learn from those around us and this is how we develop our social, communication, imagination and interaction skills.
For individuals on the spectrum this ability to watch, listen and learn is missing, autistic individuals are less likely to learn everyday, normal skills or behaviors from watching others and in most cases will need direct teaching of these skills.
This can be done through the use of visual supports for autism and
related conditions.
Such as social stories, like the example here, this social skills
story was written for a six year old child.
We know autistic individuals are visual thinkers and learners, thus using visual supports for autism makes good sense. Individuals on the spectrum are far more likely to understand and follow a visual prompt than a written prompt or those given oraly.
There are many visual support aids for autism available but probably the most significant of these are social skills stories. These were introduced around twenty years ago specifically for children with autism and related conditions, to help them communicate and understand skills and behaviours that they were struggling to master.
Deficits in social and communication skills are common to autism and using social skills stories has been proven affective. Many parents, teachers and other professionals use visual support aids for autism to help them teach and re-enforce skills and behaviours, for example hygiene routines like, brushing teeth, washing hair, getting a hair cut and so on.
Social stories are short, visual descriptive plans of a skill or behaviour, much like a comic strip. Social stories break the skill down into small visual steps, describing and showing the “wh” questions (who, where, when and why). Helping the individual with ASD understand what is expected of them, and in return what they can expect from others.
Making the individual with ASD feel more comfortable with and in the situation, which in turn can eliminate much of the stress and confusion they may be feeling.A social skills story will follow a specific formula, use first person language, visual images and will focus on the key points the social cues to help direct and encourage a positive behavior.