Social Stories

Social stories are short, simple stories about common, every day activities. They give the person guidance and directions to help them respond to a variety of different social situations.

The stories can be tailored to the individual, or else provide general guidance on a specific issue (such as not hitting people).

They are also written in such a way to promote self-awareness, emotional regulation and calming, and self-management of behaviour.

It is important to understand that social stories are not designed to change behaviour. Instead, they are simply designed to clarify what the social expectations are on the person in specific circumstances.

Social stories can be tailored to the level of understanding of the person they are written for.  They can be written in full sentences, or short phrases. They can use words, pictures/images, or a combination of both.

These social stories can be a great tool to help people to recognise acceptable and appropriate reactions in a variety of situations, and have proved extremely helpful techniques to improve overall social understanding.

You can write social stories yourself, or you can download them from places such as our members only section of our site. You can find out more information about social stories in our Essential Guide on the subject.