Takes autistic children step by step through everyday activities.

Different social stories to help teach children with autism everyday social skills.

Takes autistic children step by step through such activities as using the toilet, brushing their teeth, and wearing a safety belt in the car.

Carol Gray combines stick-figures with "conversation symbols" to illustrate what people say and think during conversations. Showing what people are thinking reinforces that others have independent thoughts--a concept that spectrum children don't intuitively understand. Children can also recognize that, although people say one thing, they may think something quite different--another concept foreign to "concrete-thinking" children. Children can draw their own "comic strips" to show what they are thinking and feeling about events or people. Different colors can represent different states of mind. These deceptively simple comic strips can reveal as well as convey quite a lot of substantive information. The author delves into topics such as: What is a Comic Strip Conversation? The Comic Strip Symbols Dictionary Drawing "small talk" Drawing about a given situation Drawing about an upcoming situation Feelings and COLOR

The Social Stories(TM) approach is widely acknowledged as a key technique for teaching social and life skills to children with autistic spectrum disorders. This text, endorsed by the originator of Social Stories(TM), Carol Gray, offers clear and comprehensive guidance for professionals, parents and carers on how to write successful and targeted Social Stories(TM) that will help develop the autistic spectrum child's understanding of social interaction. The book outlines the kinds of social challenges that people with ASD may experience and highlights the importance of learning social skills in meaningful contexts. An extended review of the guidelines for writing Social Stories(TM) will help writers to structure and develop their stories. The authors explain the key elements and highlight the potential difficulties that a writer may encounter, while providing encouragement and guidance through the various stages of what is often a challenging process. They include examples from their own professional experience, and suggest ways in which the Social Stories(TM) approach may enhance other strategies. Helpful advice on presentation and implementation is provided. Revealing the Hidden Social Code is essential reading for any professional, parent, carer or teacher wanting to employ Social Stories(TM) to develop social understanding in people with ASDs.

"Over 180 social stories that teach everyday social skills to children and young adults with autism or Asperger's syndrome, and their peers"--Page [1] of cover.

Social StoriesTM are acknowledged as a very successful way of teaching concepts and social understanding to children with autism spectrum disorders, but considerable skill is needed to write the most effective story. This clear and engaging book introduces ways of thinking about the issues your child finds difficult, and includes 32 stories created by Dr Siobhan Timmins for her son during his early years, with helpful explanations of how she did it, and what the underlying thinking was behind each set of stories. She explains how the stories build upon each other to help the child to understand further, more complex topics, and how to see the connections so that you can best help your child. From basic skills such as learning to listen, wait and share, to common fears, this book takes the mystery out of creating effective Social StoriesTM and amply demonstrates how to put together a cohesive set of stories which your child can understand and relate to.