Social stories in school

[8etty8lue]

My 8 yr old DS has Aspergers and was statemented this Spring with 15 hours of support. He is timetabled to have 3 x 1/2 hour social stories sessions p/w but tbh they are proving to be a bit of a waste of time as they concentrate on 1 ss per term. DS 'gets' it straight away, and is so bored by his ss sessions he just switches off and sees it as a waste of time. Although he understands the rules, his problem is motivation to use the knowledge he has. His ASD support worker has told the school that they are concentrating on one ss for too long, and I have as well, several times, but they won't listen. I realise how lucky we are to have this timetabled, but feel it's time wasted! A new TA is starting for him in September, so I figure I might be able to use this as a route to get them to change the way they do this. Any ideas as to how I can get them to make this time more productive?

I only have a vague idea of how the social stories work, but what if they do 1, then concentrate on applying it practically for a couple of sessions before moving on to another 1. Perhaps covering 3 or 4 every half term if appropriate.

They can revisit them every now and then to 'practice' some more if need be. This will give your DS time to access and process parts of the message bit by bit, hopefully making sense of it and applying it along the way.

Also, what about a reward system for when he does something good from any of the stories covered, that way also reinforcing and reminding him of the message, even when he may have done it subconsciously?

Hope this helps a bit...

would it be worth them building up a repertoire of a "What if..." bunch of situations - I did similar with a group of students with AS (older than 8 but hey, why not use it as age appropriately as you can?) They could then be stored in a folder for him to recap/re-read or refer to if he gets it so quickly? Stuff like what to do when the fire alarm goes off, things that would normally worry someone with AS? (scuse the apparent stereotyping, I don't in RL ) Move on to how to make tea and toast if you have to Have actually done this, it works!! We went into the use of 999 / emergency services, first aid, how to use a mobile phone, all sorts!! I know it's not precisely the aim of SS, but it's where we ended up because that's what the students needed :) Just another idea for you to think about.

afterthoughts... as usual
another use we made that really was a hit, was (still under the cover of "how to") playing board games, turn taking, skipping (as one child each end of a long rope whilst a third child does the jumping) Interactive things that would be beyond those particular students at the time, but with this approach it worked. Anything that involved a combo of social skills and a practical task, iyswim.