making social stories... need all your tips

[thisisyesterday]

have decided that the way forward with ds1 may involve social stories.

general ones don't work so well, so i think i need to make some with actual pictures of him in it otherwise he simply doesn't relate it to himself.

so any/all tips and advice welcome! how to word stories, what to include, how to physically make it into a book...

[AlysWho]

Well I'm not great at explaining things like this, for me its like learning a language- the language of social stories! Obviously also varies masiively from child to child depending on their abilities, language levels, sequencing skills etc!
So the first thing would be to read as many social stories as you can to get a feel for the language, start with googling Carol Gray, ive got this amongst others.
Keep it simple and positive and acheivable, point out the obvious, eg instead of 'it is very naughty to kick mummy, i must never do that', I would say 'my mummy loves me. She looks after me. I love my mummy. it is not nice to kick poeple, it hurts (picture of OW! &sad face).' etc etc gving alternatives to bad behaviour and explaining consequences eg mummy will be very sad.
Use pictures of real life as well as from google images, I mix and match. I dont make books cos I like to keep them short, often it'll go on the wall eg 'My school mornings', but I do always Laminate them or they get ripped, scrunched, thrown away! If it is a few pages long I put it in a ringbinder, still laminated! DD loves hers now, its familiar and comforting for her. I can refer to the story instead of saying 'you have to ...', I say 'what does it say in your story?'
Good luck, its one of the things that in the long run REALLY really works, for us. Its giving her language and mapping things out for her.x
ps I could pm you some of ours if it helps.x