Social Stories
Incorporating
Social Stories
into
Pretend Play
What is a Social Story ?



Individualized short stories
Help a child interpret information/situations
Help a child to plan the steps of an activity
Background
Created by Carol Gray in 1991
Social Stories can be used
with….

Everyone!

Most commonly used with Children with Autism.

Also beneficial for children with social disabilities,
bilingual students, typically developing students,
students needing PT/OT, students with a speech
delay, children with ADHD/ADD, children with OCD,
adults with autism, etc.
Theory of Mind







Impairment in perspective/social understanding (hard time seeing things from
any other perspective than their own and difficulty in certain social situations)
Have difficulty with understanding another person's beliefs, thoughts, point of
view.
Difficulty determining the intentions of others and how their behavior affects
others
Social situations are unpredictable which can lead to withdrawl and isolation
from social situations
Also known as mind blindness
Simon Baron-Cohen, Alan M. Leslie and Uta Frith, in 1985, published research
that suggested that children with autism do not employ a theory of mind
According to Leslie, theory of mind plays a role in the deficits children with
autism have with childhood pretend play because it effects their capacity to
mentally represent thoughts, beliefs, and desires, regardless of whether or
not the circumstances involved are real.
Benefits










Describes social cues
Improves social skills and prepares the child/adult for new social
situations
Breaks down a challenging social situation into steps
Helps a child to understand rules and routines and become familiar
with the situation
Breaks down a pretend play activity to outline the steps in
performing the activity through text and pictures
Increases appropriate responding
Increases social understanding
Provides the child with the self-esteem and confidence to participate
in an activity.
Prompts socially appropriate behavior
Presents information in a clear, concise, and consistent manner with
accurate and structured information on what is happening
When To Use Social Stories
The ways in which social stories can be
used is endless. A creative teacher
can use them to teach just about
anything.
Examples Of Social Story Topics





























Brushing teeth
Washing hands
Playing with a friend
Taking turns
Sharing a toy
Greeting friends
Joining a social activity
Joining a conversation
Pretend Play
Playing board games
Preparing for a sleepover
Going to the supermarket
Preparing for a trip
Going on an airplane
Taking a bus
Expressing frustration
Asking for a break
Using the bathroom
Going to the doctor
Playing with a sibling
What to do when someone pushes you
Eye contact
waiting my turn
Interrupting
Figures of speech
Asking questions
Calling out
Voice control
Respect




























Putting away laundry
Making a sandwich
Going to a birthday party
Getting your period
Getting dressed
Dating
Going to the movies
Sitting appropriately
Playing soccer (or another sport)
Being polite
Manners
Doing homework
Understanding emotions
Saying sorry
Keeping hands to yourself
Walking appropriately
Eating at the table
Watching TV
Standing too close
Using deodorant
Tying shoes
Cleaning my room
Picking my nose
Brushing my teeth
Taking a bath
Getting a haircut
Saying I Love you
Lying
Types of Social Stories


Books
Read the story and discuss/act out
Interactive
Perform actions and complete certain
tasks in the story, while reading, in
order to learn a skill
Creating Social Stories

Decide your audience/type of learner

What Skill(s) would you like to address


What Sentence structure do you want to
use
How will you evaluate its effectiveness/fade
it out
Sentence Structure/Format

Simple language

Simple and consistent pictures

1 step per page
Sentence Structure






Descriptive Sentences objective, most frequently
used (WHAT)
Perspective sentences statements that describe
something from someone else's viewpoint (WHY)
Cooperative sentences describe how another person
will help the student
Directive sentences help the reader to identify a
suggested/appropriate response or choice in a particular
situation (PROMPTS THE BEHAVIOR)
Affirmative sentences express a commonly shared
opinion
Control sentences are statements written by the
student to identify personal strategies for handling a
situation
Fading out



It is important to fade out a social story gradually
as the child becomes knowledgeable in the skill
area
Decreases prompt dependency
In addition the social story should be used across
many situations/people in order for the child to
generalize the skills taught in the story to other
people/situations
I Love to Pretend!
Social Stories
By Ellen Viola Thalhamer III
About the books:
“I’m a Daddy” and “Let’s Play Doctor” are social story
books that were created in order to teach children
with autism how to pretend play. For children who
are learning to pretend play and socially interact
with their peers, these books will be helpful in
guiding them through the motions of pretending to
be a daddy or a doctor. For those parents/teachers
who focus on generalization, and receptive and
expressive language, real life pictures associated
with the stories have been added to the back of the
books.
Book Information:

Website: www.ILovetoPretend.com

Email: ILovetoPretend@hotmail.com
References







Baron-Cohen S, Leslie AM, Frith U (1985). "Does the autistic child have a 'theory of
mind'?" (PDF). Cognition 21 (1): 37–46. doi:10.1016/0010-0277(85)90022-8.
PMID 2934210. http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/~aleslie/BaronCohen%20Leslie%20&%20Frith%201985.pdf. Retrieved 2008-02-16.
Leslie, A. M. (1991). Theory of mind impairment in autism. In A. Whiten, Ed., Natural
theories of mind: Evolution, development, and simulation of everyday mind reading.
Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell.
Thalhamer III, Ellen Viola. I Love to Pretend! I’m a Daddy. Bloomington, Indiana: Author
House, 2010.
Thalhamer III, Ellen Viola. I Love to Pretend! Let’s Play Doctor. Bloomington, Indiana:
Author House, 2010.
The Gray Center. (unknown). Carol Gray. Retrieved October 12, 2010, from The Gray
Center for Social Learning and Understanding: http://thegraycenter.org/ssocialstories/carol-gray
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (2010, September 27). Social Stories. Retrieved October 12,
2010, from Wikipedia The free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/social_studies
Wallin, Jason. (2004). Social Studies. Retrieved October 12, 2010, from Polyxo.com
Teaching Children with Autism: http://www.polyxo.com/socialstories/