DS is 2.5 and under referral for ASD, currently having SALT and OT sessions while we wait to see paeds/ psychs in a few months. He's just this week started (2 sessions a week) nursery as the youngest in a room of 3-5 year olds, and the least socially competent - though there are a couple of boys just either side of 3 who are close to his level of social competence.
He is good at repeating "Hello X" when I say "say Hello X", and "Bye", but otherwise really only interacts either by reciting learned phrases or when someone else takes control of the situation and runs the conversation with him. Thus, i figure he's going to need some learned ways of interacting.
Practising with stuffed animals - "monkey's on the chair, how do we ask him nicely to move?" - is one way that we're beginning. Also trying to talk through turn-taking.
Can anyone recommend good books of social stories? THe catch is that DS responds very, very particularly to illustration. He's often really quite indifferent to the cartoonish style that is popular in children's books these days, to the point that stories don't get finished. He adores Shirley Hughes (so we read a lot of Alfie), Beatrix Potter (I live-edit the stories), quite likes Pamela Allen - so fairly representative type drawing. Is the only solution to do our own with photos as illustrations?