Has anybody used Carol Gray's social stories? please review

[tiredmummyoftwo]

I have been noticing lately that DS (ASD, 4) has managed to alienate all his classmates by not responding to them and also by talking to himself not stop at school.
I remember some of you mentioned social stories before for social skills. I looked into Winslow press cat and thought Carol Gray's social stories might be the right book for DS's level. Anybody got any recommendations? Another things caught my eyes were the ask and answer questions set which is around £50 on winslow. Before splashing so much money on it, would really appreciate your comments if you have used it.

Thanks in advance.

There's a limited preview of some of Carol's work on Google Books - well worth a look. One example

They're good, but a bit confusing for me personally as they are very wordy. And the bit on hugging doesn't say anything about asking the permission of the other person, which explains why one young chap I was with last week had mastered hugging everyone, but had no clue that he was supposed to ask! Or stop when they objected!

As a guide and talking point, good. As a definitive set of instructions, perhaps not.

She does videos too, but I've not seen them.

Thanks amberlight. I found the book on amazon, review was not that good. But will you be offended if I ask you directly-did social stories help you? I read your other posts about your perspective of things and that really helps me to understand ds. I hope you don't mind me being so straight.

I can witter on for hours about what worked or didn't for me, so no worries there.
I do my own social stories for things - and they help hugely. I also have a small team of people who work with me on social things and help me to understand them, which is vital for my work. I'm always totally amazed at the things I miss, and that others can 'see' and just know instinctively. Other people's brains are just brilliant at social things compared to mine, which works with all the finesse of an overenthusiastic/panic stricken labrador puppy in a china shop.

I visualise social stories - so I spent about 30 years working through every possible sort of basic social conversation I could imagine between two people, and testing out what I thought would happen, then refining it again and again and again by testing out bits of it to see if I was right or not. Mostly not, but hey ho

Well crafted social 'cartoon strips' help me the most.