Welcome back to the Social Stories series, where we have been taking a closer look at social stories and how you can make your own. 

In Part 1, we talked about the basics of social stories, while in Part 2, we talked about when we might want to use them. In Part 3, we talked about some things that are or are not helpful to include in social stories. 

In Part 4, we will be talking about some basic principles you can apply to creating your own social stories to fit a given person’s needs.

Every social story can fill a slightly different purpose. Even if two individuals are experiencing the same type of challenge, their experience of that challenge can differ in ways that might impact how you choose to approach the situation. 

If there’s rarely going to be clear guidance on exactly what to write in a given scenario, then what principles can we use to guide ourselves in whichever specific situation we find ourselves in? 

Whether creating a new story from scratch or modifying an existing one, the following principles can be helpful guideposts for deciding how to move forward.

So let’s take a closer look!

Social stories should be simple and straightforward. Obviously, this is easier said than done! It can require making disciplined choices and making sure you are keeping focused on the core challenge or goal at hand. It can also mean making some conscious design choices. 

A classic example many social stories use is limiting text to one line per page and including an accompanying visual. If a story just isn’t sticking the way you were hoping, consider whether clarity might be the issue at hand. 

Some common clarity issues that pop up can include putting too many ideas in one sentence, the use of overly broad words like “appropriate” or “acceptable,” or trying to address lots of different behaviors at once.

Who has control in a given situation? From the perspective of the social story, it should be in the hands of the intended audience. 

Even in situations where someone else might be in charge and have final say, we should still be considering that reality from the perspective of the reader and through the lens of the choices that the reader is empowered to make. 

A classic example that shows up in many of AGU’s social stories, having to do with anger or frustration, is a list of options for what the individual can choose to do next to try to self-regulate. That does not mean we can’t talk about other people! But it should still be framed from the perspective of the reader. 

For example, if we need to talk about why a certain behavior is unacceptable, it’s not necessarily helpful to say that other people might like you better if you behaved differently. Instead, we should be able to describe the harm a person might be causing by behaving in that way. 

Starting from a framework of personal agency helps us be more accountable to the reader, and the reader is more accountable for their own actions.

One reality of social stories is that they are not set in stone. What works perfectly for one person might need tweaking for someone else, or maybe even a whole rewrite! 

One way we can take advantage of this reality is to seek to write more personalized social stories for the people using them. That might mean going into specific detail that might not apply to another person dealing with a similar issue. It might mean including relatable characters from books or tv or movies. 

It might mean working directly with the person in question to make tweaks to the final product. Remember that social stories are a tool that people use when they need them, so it makes sense to fit that tool to a given individual’s specifications!

We hope this series has offered some insight into how social stories work and how you can create your own! If you’d like to share your own experience creating social stories, then we would love to hear from you! Just drop us a line at hello@autismgrownup.com, and we hope you will stay tuned for future series!