Social Stories

Carol Gray has developed a technique called social stories to help a child with ASD understand cues and actions for specific social situations. Social stories are an effective method of providing both guidance and direction to promote self-awareness, self calming, and self-management in responding to social situations. The technique involves creating a short story that describes the situation and includes appropriate actions and expressions. By creating a short story, the situation is described in terms of relevant social cues, anticipated actions and information on what is occurring and why. The stories are written according to specific guidelines based on Gray’s extensive use of this technique. The story is also customized for the individual and their circumstance (Attwood, 1998).

Adams et al. (2004) found that social story intervention decreases a variety of undesirable behaviors exhibited by children diagnosed with ASD. Results of their study support the notion that social story intervention is a useful too in decreasing inappropriate behaviors. Although the problem behaviors decreased, the participant’s use of oral language to express his needs/concerns increased. Furthermore, this study demonstrated that multiple behaviors serving one function can be successfully addressed in a single social story. Using one story instead of four stories to address behaviors appears to be more efficient and effective.






<=My Social Stories Book by Carol Gray






The New Social Story Book by Carol Gray=>
Limited preview










How to write Social Stories:

thegraycenter.org- How to Write Social Stories

child-autism-parent-café.com- How to Write a Social Story

ehow.com- How to Write Social Stories for Children With Autism

ehow.com- How to Write a Social Story for kids with autism or Aspergers, or other behavior issues

autism.healingthresholds.com- Social Story Therapy for Children with Autism




Free Pictures to Make Social Stories:

do2learn.com- FREE Picture Cards to use to make social stories.

setbc.org- PictureSET is a collection of downloadable visual supports that can be used by students for both receptive and expressive communication in the classroom, at home, and in the community. This searchable database allows you to find a wide range of useful visual supports for different curriculum areas, activities, and events.


*Some children do better with real pictures that can be taken with your digital camera.