STORIES _ By Alison HarrisAuthor Alison Harris Paediatric Occupational Therapist Designer Caroline Massingham Editor Emma Caudwell Text © 2010 Alison Harris © 2010 TTS Group Published by TTS Group Unit 1 Park Lane Business Park Kirkby-in-Ashfield Nottinghamshire NG17 9GU www.tts-group.co.uk British Library Cataloguing-in-publishing Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-906213-31-2 The right of Alison Harris to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Alll rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and with a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed upon the subsequent purchaser. No part of this publication my be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. This book remains copyright, although permission is granted to copy pages where indicated for classroom distribution and used only in the school which has purchased the book, or by the teacher who has purchased the book, and in accordance with the CLA licensing agreement. Due to the nature of the web, the publisher cannot guarantee the content or links of any of the websites referred to. It is the responsibility of the reader to assess the suitability of websites.Author Alison Harris Paediatric Occupational Therapist Designer Caroline Massingham Editor Emma Caudwell Text © 2010 Alison Harris © 2010 TTS Group Published by TTS Group Unit 1 Park Lane Business Park Kirkby-in-Ashfield Nottinghamshire NG17 9GU www.tts-group.co. uk British Library Cataloguing-in-publishing Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-906213-31-2 The right of Alison Harris to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and with a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed upon the subsequent purchaser. No part of this publication my be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. This book remains copyright, although permission is granted to copy pages where indicated for classroom distribution and used only in the school which has purchased the book, or by the teacher who has purchased the book, and in accordance with the CLA licensing agreement. Due to the nature of the web, the publisher cannot guarantee the content or links of any of the websites referred to. It is the responsibility of the reader to assess the suitability of websites. Using Social Situation Stories to Develop Social Understanding Social Situation Stories are a tried and tested method of helping children understand a social situation and learn how to deal with it in a positive way. Many children who have autistic spectrum disorders or behavioural issues are frequently guided through socially complex situations by means of a story. In my experience working in schools, there is a wide variation in exactly how this technique is used. | have certainly seen these Stories used very well, but it is not uncommon for adults to misunderstand the purpose and principles of the strategy. This introduction sets out to explain and clarify how to use Social Situation Stories in a variety of common situations. The book contains 48 example social situations on which to base your own individualised story. Children and young people who have a learning difficulty are often frustrated and highly anxious in social situations. They may not have the social skills to deal with the ever changing environment of family life, school and the community. They may have varying hurdles to overcome which mean that they are anxious and tense, which leads to behaviour issues such as hitting out, or inappropriate behaviour. Social situations can be very hard to understand. Many children’s language skills are highly literal making daily communication a minefield of incomprehensible phrases. Consider the commonly used language such as “keep your hands to yourself’, “play nicely”, “be good” and so on. When you consider these phrases in a literal sense - what do they mean? No wonder many children do not respond in the way that they are expected to, as they simply do not understand the social requirement of the situation or the language of the instruction These children are frequently wanting to “do the right thing’, but have not had the guidance in order to enable them to do so. Social Situation Stories can be used in a positive manner to begin to explain social situations to these children. Social Situation Stories offer an explanation of one situation at a time. They are kept simple and straightforward and are designed to clarify required behaviour and understanding, not overload the child. Social Situation Stories should be positive and offer a good model of behavioural option for the child. They should seek to explain the social situation and the possible behaviours that they may encounter. Social Situation Stories are not methods of telling the child where they are going wrong. They are not opportunities to explain misdemeanours or to go over past situations which have been upsetting to the child or to others. This is an opportunity to celebrate and reinforce positive behaviours, achievements and understanding. They also offer the chance to consider how to develop the child's understanding further, whilst describing a positive situation. Social Situation Stories 3Social Situation Stories are an important and frequently used technique in schools and homes, but it is vital to remember that many children’s difficulties will be deep seated and require much more than a social situation story to work through a problem. For example: a commonly tricky situation is lining up in the classroom. Some children will find this difficult and may be very intolerant of standing close to others. A social situation story can provide a framework describing the way in which they can line up, how to do it and why they need to do it. However, if the child is tactile defensive and struggles to tolerate close proximity of others, then the negative behaviour of hitting out may continue. This is because although they may understand the requirement of their behaviour, they have not got the tools or the ability to carry this out. As supporting adults, we need to be aware of understanding the child’s situation in a holistic sense, and set them up to be able to succeed. This may mean dealing with more intrinsic or subtle difficulties before working on the end product of the required behaviour as defined in the social situation story. Therefore, it is emphasised that careful observation and assessment should be made with regard to the child's behaviour around the situation that you are trying to work on. To continue with the example of the line up: what has happened prior to the line up? Has the child struggled to finish a piece of work? Have they been left without adult support for some reason? (Perhaps a teaching assistant was not available for example.) Is the child already noted to be tense? Are there other situations where the child exhibits similar behaviour? Were they stood next to a child that you are aware they do not get on well with? It is important to look at the whole process of the behaviour developing in order to help find the best method of improving the response. How to use Social Situation Stories Keep it simple and to the point. Don’t be tempted to try to cover more than one topic at a time! Carefully consider what is the most functionally important situation to the child at this time and work on this first. Do not expand to use further Social Situation Stories until this one is firmly established in the child’s understanding. The only exception to this is when the child is not grasping this social story. You may need to break it down into smaller sections and work on one section at a time. If careful consideration is given to the level of the story, then this should not happen in the first place. Write the story for the target audience. Make sure that you use language that is appropriate and commonly used by the child who requires the social situation story. Spend time thinking about the situation, and how the child may view it. Share the story with other adults who know the child and check that this fits well with their present level of understanding. Check that the story does not include too many issues and that it is clear. Write a story which is an appropriate length for the child. Some stories may only have three or four sentences if that is what is appropriate. If PECS (Picture Exchange Communication Systems) are being used, adapt the story to use the same number of symbols that the child would normally be able to interpret. Consider the child’s comprehension level and attention span. How long will it take to read and share this story with the child? Social Situation Stories 4Social Situation Stories are an important and frequently used technique in schools and homes, but it is vital to remember that many children’s difficulties will be deep seated and require much more than a social situation story to work through a problem. For example: a commonly tricky situation is lining up in the classroom. Some children will find this difficult and may be very intolerant of standing close to others. A social situation story can provide a framework describing the way in which they can line up, how to do it and why they need to do it. However, if the child is tactile defensive and struggles to tolerate close proximity of others, then the negative behaviour of hitting out may continue. This is because although they may understand the requirement of their behaviour, they have not got the tools or the ability to carry this out. As supporting adults, we need to be aware of understanding the child's situation in a holistic sense, and set them up to be able to succeed. This may mean dealing with more intrinsic or subtle difficulties before working on the end product of the required behaviour as defined in the social situation story. Therefore, it is emphasised that careful observation and assessment should be made with regard to the child’s behaviour around the situation that you are trying to work on. To continue with the example of the line up: what has happened prior to the line up? Has the child struggled to finish a piece of work? Have they been left without adult support for some reason? (Perhaps a teaching assistant was not available for example.) Is the child already noted to be tense? Are there other situations where the child exhibits similar behaviour? Were they stood next to a child that you are aware they do not get on well with? It is important to look at the whole process of the behaviour developing in order to help find the best method of improving the response. How to use Social Situation Stories Keep it simple and to the point. Don't be tempted to try to cover more than one topic at a time! Carefully consider what is the most functionally important situation to the child at this time and work on this first. Do not expand to use further Social Situation Stories until this one is firmly established in the child’s understanding. The only exception to this is when the child is not grasping this social story. You may need to break it down into smaller sections and work on one section at a time. If careful consideration is given to the level of the story, then this should not happen in the first place. Write the story for the target audience. Make sure that you use language that is appropriate and commonly used by the child who requires the social situation story. Spend time thinking about the situation, and how the child may view it. Share the story with other adults who know the child and check that this fits well with their present level of understanding. Check that the story does not include too many issues and that it is clear. Write a story which is an appropriate length for the child. Some stories may only have three or four sentences if that is what is appropriate. If PECS (Picture Exchange Communication Systems) are being used, adapt the story to use the same number of symbols that the child would normally be able to interpret. Consider the child's comprehension level and attention span. How long will it take to read and share this story with the child? Social Situation Stories 4 Make it personal and appropriate for the child. If the child uses PECS that is entirely appropriate to continue using with a social situation story. It is highly effective to use digital photographs of the people and places described in the story. This makes it very real for the child who has literal language. Broadening the story to generalise it to other situations will take time for the child who finds it hard to understand that behaviour in one situation is also required in a similar situation. They may need to be specifically taught about each situation one by one. If this is the level that the child is at, it is going to be steady progress, taking each environment one at a time. However, if this means that positive progress is made, this will let you know that this careful approach was the correct one to take for this individual. Share it! Before using a social situation story, it is a good idea to share it with parents or other members of staff. This gives you an opportunity to check that you are offering an appropriate behavioural model and explaining situations that are pertinent to the child in the story. Wherever possible, Social Situation Stories should be used within the various environments that the child regularly meets. If a social situation story is being used at school, it is very important that parents are aware of the story and its contents. This means that they can reinforce the positive behaviours and reward the child appropriately when they show signs of new understanding and progress. Feedback. The story is likely to be used over a period of time and will be frequently repeated When the child begins to show improved understanding or behaviour that links in with what they have been learning from the story, make sure that you praise the child and clearly make a link with what they learned in the story. In this way, praise is linked with what the child has learned from the positive description of behaviours in the story. This paves the way for the child to associate good changes with using Social Situation Stories as a normal part of their day. Using the Stories in this Book: The intention here is that you use the following Social Situation Stories as examples. You need to use the child’s name or make them all appropriate to their own situation. They are not intended to be copied! This would not link them personally and individually to the child and would therefore not meet the criteria to make them effective Social! Situation Stories. Remember: + Use the following stories as guidelines only. Write your own stories which are personal and individual. * These sample stories are at the top end of complexity. You are likely to need to simplify them. * Keep it positive! What does the child already do well? * Keep it clear and avoid confusing the child with too much detail! + Make it individual and appropriate to the child’s interests and to their level of understanding. Social Situation Stories 5School and Classroom Settings 1. Standing in Line My name is Andrew and | am eight years old. | am in Class 3A and my teacher is called Mrs Jennings. We do lots of fun activities at school. | enjoy painting and doing PE. When it's time to go to the hall for PE, Mrs Jennings tells us to line up when we are ready. Sometimes everyone rushes to be ready so that they can be at the front of the line. | got a sticker for being ready quickly last week. | like to have a space around me when | line up. | do not like to be pushed. Noone likes to be pushed in the line. | can choose to wait to go at the end of the line. When | stand and wait quietly with my classmates, we get a sticker. An alternative for a younger child could be: My class lines up by the door to go to assembly. Mrs Smith is happy when we wait quietly. 1 can stand in a space in the line. / get a reward when | have waited in the line. Social Situation Stories 62. Following Instructions My teacher Mr Wilkins comes to talk to me and tells me what | need to do. Sometimes he calls me by my name when he wants me to do something: “Joe, | want you to sort out the blue coins from the red coins”. It helps me to listen well when he calls me by my name. | know that he is talking to just me. Mr Wilkins tells the class what to do. He does not use my name when he is talking to everyone. It would take too long to say everyone’s name when he wants us all to listen. | listen carefully in class when Mr Wilkins talks. He says: “Listen everyone!” Then he tells us what we have to do. | hear Mr Wilkins say: “Well done everyone!” My class worked hard and he was pleased with everyone. That means he was pleased with me too. My name is Cathy. [Insert picture of Cathy] Mrs Morgan helps me in class. [Insert picture of Mrs Morgan] Mrs Morgan tells me to look at her when she is talking to me. [Insert picture of Cathy looking at Mrs Morgan] When | look at Mrs Morgan, she knows that | am listening. Mrs Morgan says: “Cathy, please fetch your book”. | know that she is talking to me when she uses my name. Mrs Morgan is happy when | do what she asks me to do. | can do what she asks me when | listen. | have got 12 stamps for doing what Mrs Morgan asks me. [Insert picture of rewards] Social Situation Stories 73. Sitting on the Carpet My name is Chloe and | am in class 1. My class sit on the carpet when Mrs Biggins reads us a story. Lots of children sit together on the carpet and there is not alot of room. | sit cross legged and look at Mrs Biggins. | listen carefully to the story. Sometimes children get fidgety when they are listening to the story. Mrs Biggins says: “Please keep your hands to yourself”. This means that we are not to fiddle with other people's hair or touch them because that stops them listening. | have a red cushion to sit on and | keep it in my space. | can keep my hands to myself and listen to the story. Mrs Biggins is pleased when | listen well. My class sits on the carpet when Mr Taylor tells us what we are going to do next. APVIGE Before making your social situation story about sitting on the carpet, make sure that you have put in place strategies that will help the child to succeed. Do they need a special space where they can sit? A small mat or a cushion can be great to encourage a child to keep to within their own space. Remember to enable success! We all sit on a space on the carpet. This means sitting with a gap around me so that we have enough room so that we don’t knock into other people while we are listening. Sometimes | have to look carefully for a space for me to sit. | can sit at the front near Mr Taylor, or | can sit at the back. Mr Taylor is pleased when | think about where | should sit. | find a space and sit to listen carefully. Social Situation Stories 84. Listening to Others My name is Sam. My friend’s name is Joe. Joe listens to me when | talk about what | did at the weekend, what games | played. Then Joe knows about these things, because he listened to me. | like it when Joe listens. It shows that he is my friend and is interested in me. When Joe talks to me and tells me things, | listen to him too. | have to stop what | am doing so that | listen really well. This shows Joe that | am interested in him and that he is my friend. We also listen in class. My teacher, Mrs Jones, says “listen everyone!” and we all stop what we are doing so that we listen carefully to what she is saying. Sometimes Mrs Jones has to wait until everyone stops talking and is listening to her. Sometimes we listen to Mrs Jones tell us a story and | like that alot. Sometimes we have to listen when Mrs Jones tells us about things that | am not interested in, but because she is our teacher, | listen because that is what | need to do. Listening is good because | show that | am a good friend to Joe. Listening is good because Mrs Jones needs me to hear what she is telling me. When | listen, | learn new things. I listen to Joe's stories about what his sister did and where he went at the weekend. | listen to Mrs Jones tell us about what we are doing today. | try hard to listen my best by stopping what | am doing and looking at the person | am listening to. This helps them know | am listening. Mrs Jones says | am a good listener now and | got a reward for listening to the whole story last week Social Situation Stories 95. Putting my Hand up to Speak When | want to say something to my teacher, | put my hand up. This helps her to notice that | want to say something. My class do not shout out because that means too many children will be talking at once and our teacher will not be able to hear us. All the noise might give us a headache! Sometimes | have to wait a few minutes for my teacher to come to me. Waiting can make me feel cross. | take a big breath and wait my turn for the teacher. When she asks me what | want to say, | put my hand down and it is my turn to speak. | listen carefully to my teacher when she answers my question. This helps me to do my work and then my teacher is pleased with me. Social Situation Stories 106. Asking for Help In our class we can put our hand up if we need help with our work. Sometimes we have to wait while other people are being helped by the teacher. | like trying to do my work without asking for help. If | am getting upset because | am finding my work difficult, | can use my red help card on my desk. My helper knows that this means that | feel upset about my work and need some help right now. She will come and help me as soon as she can. My name is Chris and | enjoy maths. | like to do my maths work without any help because | know that | can do it. | feel happy when I do my work on my own. Sometimes Literacy work is not easy for me. | like to try to do it without any help. Mrs Kingston notices that | am finding the work hard and asks me if | want her to talk to me about it. | can choose whether | want help or not. | answer politely if | do not want help. I can ask for help to get me started and then to let me try alone. It’s OK to have help if | get stuck with my work and it can help me understand the work better next time. Social Situation Stories an7. Waiting for my Teacher | am Claire and | am in Mr Griffith's class. There are 30 children in my class and Mr Griffith helps everyone. He is very busy helping everyone. We put our hand up when we need help from the teacher. This means that we are waiting to have help with our work. Mr Griffith likes his class to wait in their seat and he comes round to us when it is our turn. Waiting can be difficult and make me feel cross. | can do another part of my work while | wait, or it is OK to sit and wait for Mr Griffith. When | am waiting, | keep myself calm by [insert appropriate strategy such as use a fidget toy, draw a picture in my doodle book etc]. Mr Griffith has to help all my class and comes to me as soon as he can. He is pleased when | wait and stay calm: | get a reward when | wait patiently. Being patient means that | stay calm, sit in my seat and try to wait without getting cross. My teacher helps everyone. She helps one or two people at the same time. Sometimes she helps a group sitting at the same table. My teacher likes it when we sit and wait patiently for her to help us. Social Situation Stories 128. My Teacher wants us to be quiet when... My teacher is called Mrs Buxton. She has a special way to get her class to be quiet and stop talking. She puts both her hands on her head, and then we all have to put our hands on our head too. When we have put our hands on our head, we have to stop talking too. This is just what our class does. Other teachers ask their classes to be quiet in different ways. | can be quiet and listen when | see Mrs Buxton putting her hands on her head. In class 5 we are quiet and stop talking when our teacher claps his hands three times. He does this so that he can tell us important instructions, or when we are too noisy and he wants us to be quieter. If | clap my hands three times, no one stops talking! But when our teacher does, everyone listens! When | play at schools with my friend, | clap my hands like my teacher and my friend is quiet! We take it in turns to be the teacher. | have learned to stop what | am doing and listen when my teacher claps his hands. | get a sticker on my chart when | do as I'm told. | have got 6 stickers for being good. Social Situation Stories 13,9. Time to Finish | enjoy writing/playing/painting etc at school. When | am writing/playing/painting | would like to do it all the time! My teacher says “It’s time to finish”. This is OK when | am ready to finish what | am doing. Sometimes | don't feel ready to finish and | want to keep doing what | am doing [be specific herel] | need to do what my teacher asks me to do. It helps when | have my traffic light on my desk. When the traffic light is on green, | can keep writing/playing/painting. When the traffic light is on amber, this means | am going to have to stop soon and | need to be ready to stop. When the traffic light is on red, | stop and put my things away. | paint pictures at school. | love painting. | need to know how long | can spend painting. My helper puts my sand timer by me on the shelf. | can watch the sand going through the tiny hole in the middle. When the sand has nearly all gone, | know that it is time to finish. Being ready to finish is good and this makes my teacher happy with me and sometimes | get a reward for being ready to start the next activity. Social Situation Stories 1410. Timetable Changes Things can change in my timetable. This can happen suddenly and | have not known that something was going to change. When we know that something is going to be different, my helper shows me on my timetable. If we know that there is a special event next week, we talk about it before it happens. This helps me to know what to expect. Changes can happen quickly and | don't always know that they are going to happen. Today my teacher says we are having a surprise today. She explains what is going to be changed and what the class have to do. My helper can tell me about the surprise again when we are on our own, and | can ask her questions about what is going to happen. Surprises are tricky things because sometimes surprises are brilliant and make me feel happy, like the day that the fire engine came to school. Sometimes surprises can worry me because | don't like the surprise, like when a balloon bursts or when there is a big noise. My helper can't always tell me when there is going to be a surprise because she does not always know. When we know there is going to be a surprise, my helper or my teacher tell me about the change. I can have it put on my timetable and | can ask questions about what is going to happen. | try to stay calm when there is going to be something different happening. | can trust my helper to stay with me if | tell her | am worried. Each time | have a surprise or a change to my timetable, | am learning to cope and feel OK about it. This is good. Social Situation Stories 1511. Taking Turns | take turns with my friend, Ben, when we both want to play with the same toy. | take turns with the children at my table when we all need to use the glue. | take turns to hand out the fruit at playtime. [Insert appropriate examples for your story] Taking turns means that everyone gets a time when they do the job and no one else does. | wait when it is not my turn. It can be hard to wait and | can ask my helper how long it will be till it is my turn. When | take turns, my teacher is happy with me. When we play games, each person takes a turn. This means that one person is playing the game while everyone watches. Then it is the next person’s turn. When it is not my turn, | watch what is happening. When it is not my turn, | wait and watch. Waiting is not fun, but if | wait | get to take my turn. | like taking my turn in the game. | can take turns and play with my friends. We play snakes and ladders, and pass the parcel. We all take turns. We decide who is going to start and who goes next. This is how we take turns and play nicely together. Playing with my friends is fun. Social Situation Stories 1612. Working alongside other Children lam Andrew. | am in Class B and my teacher is Mrs Price. There are 28 children in my class. We all work together. | have special friends in class. There are children that are not my special friends, but we can still work together and help each other. Mrs Price says we must all be kind to each other. That means that we do not hit or push other children | do not like being hit or pushed. | will try not to hit or push anyone. If | am unhappy, | can tell Mrs Price and she helps me. Sometimes that means | move to another table. Sometimes it means that Mrs Price will come and work with us on our table. This helps us take turns and work together better. 1am learning to work with the children in my class. We can share crayons and pencils. We can help each other and talk to each other. Mrs Price says we work best when we are helping each other. My class works hard at helping each other. Social Situation Stories 1713. Circle Time lam Jack and | am 5 years old. | am in Reception class with Mrs Taylor. Every morning we have circle time. My class sits on the carpet to hear everyone's news. We can take special things to show everyone. We can tell the class and Mrs Taylor what we have done at home. We hold our class teddy when it is our turn to talk. When | have finished talking, | pass teddy onto the person next to me. Now it is their turn. We listen to each other. | do not talk when someone else is talking. They do not talk when | am talking. We share our news. Social Situation Stories 1814. More Circle Time At Circle Time, Steven sits with his class to hear everyone's news. One person talks at a time. We take turns around the circle. When it is Steven's turn, he tells his class about what he did last night. Everyone listens to Steven when he talks. Then it’s the next person’s turn to talk. Steven is quiet and listens to their news. Sometimes Steven likes to hear their news, but it can be hard to listen too. When Steven is quiet and listens to other people, he gets a stamp on his chart. Steven has ....... stamps on his chart today. When he listens today at circle time he will have ....... stamps. 15. Sharing my Toys My name is Katy and | am six years old. | have lots of toys at home and they belong to me. | take a toy with me to school. My friends might like to play with my toy. They ask first if they can play with my toy. Sometimes | don’t want them to play with my toy and | take it away. This makes my friends sad. If | share my toy, we can both play with it. When we finish playing with it, | can put it away. My toy still belongs to me. | can take my toy home again. Social Situation Stories 1916. Sharing my Friend’s Toy | like playing with my friends. | am happy when | play with my friends. | have toys which belong to me. My friends have toys which belong to them. Sometimes | take their toy and | want to keep it. When this happens, it makes my friend sad because it is their toy. | am learning to ask my friend if | can play with their toy. The toy still belongs to them. | can't take the toy home with me. It belongs to my friend. If | want to play with their toy | can say: “Please can | play with your toy?” They may say “no”. This makes me sad. They may say “yes”. This makes me happy. | can play with their toy when they say “yes”. | give it back to them after and say “thanks for letting me play’. | like playing with my friends and sharing toys. Social Situation Stories ABVTEE Happy and sad faces are often used in school to reinforce a behaviour which is positive or a behaviour which is not helpful. Keep the symbols that you use consistent whenever you use them, and make sure that parents and carers are using the same symbols at home. Emotions are very difficult to explain through symbols, but most children understand a happy or a sad face. 2017. Making Choices My name is Carley and | am 12 years old. | am in Mrs Beardsmore’s form. Every Tuesday | do Life Skills. This means that | am learning how to do what | am going to need to do when | am grown up. Life Skills includes cooking, shopping, using money and planning what | need to do next time. | make choices when | do Life Skills. Having a choice means that | can decide something. | can decide if | want to cook pasta or potatoes. Having a choice means that | can do either pasta or potatoes and | can decide which | want. Sometimes it's hard to make up my mind because | like both of the choices. It's OK to not know which to choose. Both things might be as good as each other, so | can just choose one and that is OK. | can take my time and talk to my helper about what to choose. She helps me think about if | already have pasta in the cupboard or what | think | would like to eat. My helper does not choose for me. | make a choice. | like being able to choose what | would like to cook. It helps me feel grown up and that | am going to be able to look after myself when | am an adult. There are lots of choices to make each day. | can choose what | want to wear. | can choose what | want to eat for breakfast. | can choose what | do at lunchtime. | can choose what | would like to watch on television. | can choose which shops to go to when | go shopping. Making choices is good. | can practice making choices every day. | can make choices on my own. Social Situation Stories 2118. | Feel ill | am Charlotte and | sometimes have a poorly tummy. When my tummy is poorly, | feel ill. My tummy feels funny and makes gurgling noises. | don't like it when | feel ill. Feeling ill makes me feel worried. | have learned what to do when | feel ill: | tell my helper, Mrs Jones, that my tummy feels funny. Mrs Jones says that it is important that | tell her | feel ill. | Mrs Jones takes me to the toilet. Sometimes going to the toilet makes me feel better. If | still feel poorly, we go and sit in a quiet place and read a story. Mrs Jones asks if | am feeling alright to go back to class. We can go back to the class if | feel better. If my tummy still feels funny, Mrs Jones calls my mum and dad and they come to take me home. That doesn't happen very often as most times after we go and read a story, | start to feel better. | like being at school and enjoy painting and playing with my friends. Social Situation Stories 2219. Sitting in Assembly At our school, we have assembly everyday. In assembly, we sing songs and hear any news that we need to know about at school. Sometimes our Headteacher, Mr Jenkins, tells us if our football team won the match, or he gives out certificates to children who have worked hard. | go to assembly so that | can be with my class and hear about the good work everyone is doing. We sit in long lines and sometimes it feels very squashed. | sit with my legs crossed and | keep my hands to myself. This means that I am not to touch or fiddle with other people. It can be annoying to other people if | am not sitting properly. Everyone is quiet and listens to Mr Jenkins when he is talking. If he hears people talking, he does not like it and waits for everyone to be quiet. If lam finding it hard to sit stil, | can choose to sit on the end of the line so that | am close to my helper. | can also choose to take my stress ball to assembly with me. | am allowed to hold and squeeze my stress ball in assembly. This helps me to stay quiet and sit with my class. Last year, when I was six years old, | did not go into assembly because | found it hard to sit still Now | am seven | have learned to sit with my class. My helper is very pleased with me. | got a certificate in assembly from Mr Jenkins because | had learned to sit with my class in assembly. 1am very proud of my certificate. Social Situation Stories 2320. My Class is Noisy! | have pictures on a timetable so | know what | am doing today. My helper knows that | don't like noisy things like everyone singing or loud music. When | see singing on my timetable, | know it will be noisy. My helper, Mrs Smith, sits close by when my class do singing. If |am not happy, | can ask her to take me out. We can listen to the singing outside the classroom. Last week | stayed in the classroom when we were singing. | like the singing but the noise hurts my ears. | can put my hands over my ears to make is quieter or | can go outside with Mrs Smith. My name is Stephen. | like to hear music but loud music makes me worried. My class do music each week on Thursday afternoon. Children in my class play musical instruments which sound very loud. My teacher knows that | find this hard, and lets me sit at the other end of the room when they are playing their music. Sometimes | go to another room if the noise makes me worried. That's OK and | can tell my teacher if | do need to go to another room. Social Situation Stories 24rT ell 21. Using Good Language James is in Mr Taylor’s class. James works very hard and Mr Taylor is pleased with him. James’ class work well together and talk to each other while they work. We speak to each other using good language. This means that the words we use are good words. Some words are bad. Bad words are called swear words. Saying swear words is not good. Hearing children say swear words upsets people. Mr Taylor does not allow any swear words. | can use good language because | know lots and lots of words. | can make good words into stories. | can listen to good words when Mr Taylor reads us stories. | can sit and listen in class. | can take turns. If | am cross | feel | want to say a bad word. Before | say a bad word, | need to stop [insert symbol] | go to find my teacher and tell her | feel cross. | can tell her why | am cross. She helps me to find something else to do. She helps me to calm down. My teacher is happy when | ask her to help me. It makes my teacher happy when I use good words. Social Situation Stories | 2520. My Class is Noisy! | have pictures on a timetable so | know what | am doing today. My helper knows that | don’t like noisy things like everyone singing or loud music. When | see singing on my timetable, | know it will be noisy. My helper, Mrs Smith, sits close by when my class do singing. If |am not happy, | can ask her to take me out. We can listen to the singing outside the classroom. Last week | stayed in the classroom when we were singing. | like the singing but the noise hurts my ears. | can put my hands over my ears to make is quieter or | can go outside with Mrs Smith. My name is Stephen. | like to hear music but loud music makes me worried My class do music each week on Thursday afternoon. Children in my class play musical instruments which sound very loud My teacher knows that | find this hard, and lets me sit at the other end of the room when they are playing their music. Sometimes | go to another room if the noise makes me worried. That's OK and | can tell my teacher if | do need to go to another room. Social Situation Stories 2422. Appropriate Touch Jack can touch and play with Jack’s toys. Jack can touch and work with his pencil and book in class. Jack can ask to touch and use . [insert] Jack does not take other children’s books. Jack does not take other children’s toys. | When Jack works well, Mrs Smith is happy and Jack is happy. Jack is working well today in class. My body belongs to me. My body is private. It is mine and | can touch my body. When | am with other people, it is not nice to put my hands in my pants. It is not nice to pick my nose. People will not like to see me pick my nose. My teacher says | can watch him and if he does not do something like scratch his bottom, then | should not do it either. APVIGE Both these stories require specifics! Use the child’s language to describe what is happening. It is not going to be effective to try to hint at what it is that you are needing them to change. You need to make it clear to them what is not OK! Watching what my teacher does helps me to learn what is OK to do. Social Situation Stories 26Tn 23. Taking Turns in a Conversation | talk to my friend. | talk to my teacher. | talk to my mum and dad. When we talk, we take it in turns to speak. When my friend is talking, | listen to them. When | am talking, my friend listens to me. Talking is better when we listen as well! When I listen, | try hard to think about what my friend is saying to me. This can help me have an idea about what | want to say next. When | listen to my friend, he knows that | am interested in what he is saying. This helps him to know that | am his friend Having a conversation means being quiet and listening too! | say hello to Mrs Bridges. Mrs Bridges says hello to me. lask Mrs Bridges a question Mrs Bridges listens to my question and then answers me. This means that we are taking it in turns to talk and we are having a conversation. If do all the talking, then we are not taking it in turns. !listen to Mrs Bridges and she listens to me too. Social Situation Stories 2722. Appropriate Touch Jack can touch and play with Jack’s toys. Jack can touch and work with his pencil and book in class. Jack can ask to touch and use .... . finsert] Jack does not take other children’s books. Jack does not take other children’s toys. When Jack works well, Mrs Smith is happy and Jack is happy. Jack is working well today in class. My body belongs to me. My body is private. Itis mine and | can touch my body. When | am with other people, it is not nice to put my hands in my pants. It is not nice to pick my nose. People will not like to see me pick my nose. My teacher says | can watch him and if he does not do something like scratch his bottom, then I should not do it either. AVPVIadet Both these stories require specifics! Use the child’s language to describe what is happening. It is not going to be effective to try to hint at what it is that you are needing them to change. You need to make it clear to them what is not OK! Watching what my teacher does helps me to learn what is OK to do. Social Situation Stories 2624. Someone Else’s Birthday Today is someone else’s birthday. It is not my birthday today. | feel sad that it is not my birthday because | really like having presents. Today it is Amy's turn to have her birthday. My class sings “Happy Birthday!” to Amy. | join in too and sing. Amy will have presents today and new toys. That is OK because it is Amy’s turn to have birthday presents. Everyone has a birthday once a year. My birthday is coming soon. When it is my birthday, it will be my turn for the class to sing “Happy Birthday” to me and | will have birthday presents. On Sunday it is John’s birthday. He is coming to my house with my uncle and aunt for a birthday party. There will be lovely party food, balloons and games. There will be lots of people in my house. We will play games in the kitchen. When we play games it can be noisy. If | want to be quiet, | can go and sit in my bedroom for a while. | like helping blow the candles out on the birthday cake. John can blow the candles out first, but then the candles can be lit again and other people can blow them out too. John will have birthday presents. | have bought him a car which | will give him at the party. It is John’s turn to have a birthday. My birthday was last month and my friends came to my house for a party. | enjoyed opening my presents. On Sunday it is John’s turn to have his birthday. | don’t have presents because it is not my birthday. | can share the lovely party food. | can play the games and join in the fun. Social Situation Stories 2825. Phrases | don’t Understand lam Simon. | go to school and am in Mrs Steven’s class. | enjoy talking to the other children in my class. | talk to Mr Farrow, my teaching assistant too. We talk about lots of different things. Sometimes words can be hard to understand and Mr Farrow has explained to me that people use phrases which do not mean as they sound. There are funny examples: “Don't hold your breath” means don’t wait! “Wash your ears out” is a funny way of saying you need to listen better. “Pull your socks up” means you need to try harder. They can be very confusing for me. When | don’t understand, | can ask Mr Farrow to explain. |can ask my mum or dad or my teacher to explain when I don’t understand. There are lots of examples of funny phrases. | play a game with Mr Farrow which has cards with funny phrases on. | try to explain what the phrase means. | can do some of them, but others are still hard Every time | learn a new phrase and understand what it means, | am very pleased. Mr Farrow says it will help me to understand better when | talk to people. | can even try out a funny phrase myself. My granny says “bless your cotton socks” to me - that’s funny and means she thinks I'm great! It's not about my socks!! Ha ha! Social Situation Stories 3026. Feeling Angry or Upset I'm Adam and | go to Silverdale School. | enjoy going to school and get lots of help with my work. | have won a prize this term for my computer project about the Moon. When | have to wait for my turn on the computer, | feel cross. | don't like to wait. | am learning to wait because everyone has to have a turn on the computer. | take 5 big deep breaths. This helps me to feel calm. | can tell my helper that | am feeling upset. | have a symbol card too that | can take to my teacher. This helps them to know how | am feeling. My teacher helps me to say what's wrong and how | feel. Sometimes | go and sit in the quiet corner with my helper. We have nice cushions and books which | can look at while | wait. | feel better when | start to calm down. | am practising being calm at school and at home too. | am getting better at calming down. Some days | feel cross and angry. | show my symbol card to my helper. That helps her to know how | feel. We work out what to do next. She helps me to feel better. Social Situation Stories 34Play Situations 27. Asking a Friend to Play Freddie likes playtime. He likes to run around on the playground. If he wants to play with a friend, he can ask his friend. Freddie needs to stand close to his friend. Freddie looks at his friend. Freddie waits for his friend to look at him too. Freddie says “Can you play with me?” If his friend says no, that’s OK. Freddie can ask another friend to play. If his friend says yes, they can play together. Jane takes the ball outside. Jane wants to play with Susan. She asks Susan to play. “Shall we play with the ball?” asks Jane. Some days Susan wants to play ball. Other days Susan does not want to play. It is good to ask friends to play. This is how Jane asks her friend to play. APVICE Be specific and use photographs. Talk about the situation before and what happens when someone says no they don’t want to play. This is a positive rehearsal story, but needs careful follow-up in the playground. Social Situation Stories 3228. Joining ina Game Tom and lan are playing together. Jamie would like to play too. He can ask Tom and lan if he can play too. When Tom and lan play with Jamie, Jamie needs to take turns and let Tom and lan make some of the rules. The game they are playing is Tom’s, lan’s and Jamie's. They all decide how to play together. No one is the boss! It's like taking turns when you play a board game - everyone gets a go. When Jamie plays well with Tom and lan, they are happy to play with Jamie. Then, next time that Jamie asks to join their game, they will be happy for Jamie to play again. This is how friends play together. Sam joins in the game with Toby and Holly. Toby and Holly tell Sam how to play their game. Sam listens how to play. His friends tell him the game rules. Sam plays the game and follows the rules. Toby, Holly and Sam play happily together. Social Situation Stories APVIGE There are many social skills required when joining in other children’s games. Work on one area at a time. For example, develop understanding about the above story before working on when to start adding or changing rules! 3329. My Friend is Playing with Someone Else My name is Annie. My best friend is Sally. | like playing with Sally. We play at mums and dads or schools and have lots of fun. Some days Sally plays with Sean or Lucy. It makes me feel sad because | want Sally to play with me. | feel upset when Sally does not play with me. Some days | play with Sean. Sean and Sally are both my friends. We can play with different friends at play time. We are still friends even when we don't play together. | can go and ask Sally to play with me and Sean. Sometimes she says yes and comes and plays with us. Some days she says no and wants to play with another friend. ABVIeeE This is a really hard situation for a child to understand. Illustrate the story with a positive ending - it could be a picture of playing with new friends, and then going back into class with their best friend. It's important to acknowledge feelings about being upset. It is OK to feel upset and they know where to get help. That's OK. We can be friends with lots of people. When | am upset, | can go and find Mrs Jones. Mrs Jones helps me find a friend to play with. Social Situation Stories 3430. Playing Games Together | play with my friend James. James likes to play my game of....... We decide if we are going to play my game or his game. We take it in turns to choose which game we play. If | chose the game yesterday, today it is James’ turn to choose. Sometimes | don’t want to play James’ game. This can make me feel cross. Sometimes James doesn't want to play my game and he can feel cross too. Itis OK to feel cross but playing together makes us happy too. It is good to take it in turns to choose the game. If we are playing James’ game, it is up to him to make the rules. | don’t make the rules for James’ game. | don’t have to agree that these are great rules, but if | want to play with James and be his friend, | need to take turns at making the rules. We play games in class. The games are fun. It's fun to win the game. When you play games, sometimes you lose. It's OK to win sometimes. It's OK to lose sometimes. When people get cross playing games, they can do things that make me unhappy like take my card away. It helps if | stay calm and have a deep breath. Mrs Smith helps us to sort out problems with the game. The point of playing a game is to have fun. When we all take our turn and stay calm, everyone can enjoy playing together. Social Situation Stories 3531. My Special Interest My name is Daniel. | really like robots. | have lots of books about robots and | know all the names even the really long complicated ones. | talk to my dad about robots. We play games with the robots | have at home. On Fridays, my teacher lets me read my robot books to her. On other days, my teacher says there are lots of other exciting things that | need to learn about. | listen to my teacher and learn about other topics [list topics that the child is also interested in]. | love my doll. My doll comes to school with me. She stays in my bag until playtime. She goes back in my bag at the end of playtime. My helper, Mrs Reid, makes sure my doll is safe in my bag. We don't talk about my doll until playtime. This helps me to do my work. When I work well | get a Golden Time Point. | can choose what | want to play with on Friday afternoon when | have collected 10 points. | like to play with ....... [insert other games/activities that the child enjoys]. [Insert name of Cartoon character] is my favourite. | don't talk about him when | am working in class because | need to listen to my teacher. |.can make games up about him in the playground, but sometimes my friends want to play other games. | can play my game or | can go and join my friends to play their game. When | go back into class, | listen hard and do my work. Social Situation Stories 3632. Being Called a Nickname | am Kate. My Dad calls me Kitty Kat. That's a nickname It's not my real name. Anickname is a name for you that is not your real name but shows that the person likes you. Other nicknames might be: Sweetheart. Honey. Superstar. These are nice names to be called. Sometimes nicknames can be nasty. Nasty names are not allowed. If someone calls me a nasty name, | tell my teacher. If someone calls me a nasty name, | tell my mum or dad. | don’t call anyone nasty names. It makes people sad. But my nice nicknames are fun and make me feel happy. | have a nickname for my friend [insert name]. | call him [insert nickname]. He knows that | call him [insert nickname] because he is my friend. It makes him happy. I can call him [name] too! We are good friends. Social Situation Stories 3733. Being Teased In our school we all work together. We have rules to help us be friends and behave well. One of our rules is to be kind to each other. Teasing someone is not kind. Teasing means making fun of something about a person. It might mean making a joke about how they look or about something that they do. Being teased makes people unhappy. Teasing is not kind. We can be kind to each other by saying good things like: “L like your haircut”. “Your new glasses look smart’. If |am teased and | feel unhappy or upset or angry, | tell my teacher. | can tell them what has happened and what has been said. It is right to tell my teacher so that they can help sort it out. | do not tease other people with unkind words. My class tries hard to be kind to each other. Our teacher has a special award if she sees someone being kind. | had the Star of the Week award for helping Sam when he fell over. Social Situation Stories 3834. My Friend is Cross |am Tim and my friend is called Daniel. We are both 8 years old. We are in Mrs Jones’ class. We play together at lunchtime. We like to make a den in the bushes. We pretend that we are playing spying games. Daniel can be a bit bossy and tells me what to do. | don't always want to do what Daniel says. | don’t have to do what Daniel says all the time. It's OK to have my own ideas of games to play. Daniel gets cross some days. He stamps his feet and shouts at me. He frightens me when he shouts. | don't like it. | go to see the dinner lady and tell her what has happened. The dinner lady sees that Daniel is shouting and comes to talk to us. We tell her what is the matter. She helps us sort out the problem. She helps Daniel calm down. She stays and watches us play together for a while. We can play and still be friends. Daniel and | are learning to take turns making the rules of our game. Now, that's a great idea! Social Situation Stories 3935. When Someone Cries My name is Alfie and my friend is called Jake. Jake gets sad when his mum leaves him at school. I'm not sad when my mum leaves me at school. | know that she will come back later and we will go home. Jake has a hug from our class helper. He soon stops crying when he starts to play. | don’t have to worry that Jake is crying. | don't feel upset because he is crying. | understand that he is missing his mum. Sometimes children cry because they fall over and hurt themselves. | don't have to worry about them. | can get a grown up to help. | cry when | hurt myself too. We always get help when we hurt ourselves. Sometimes we get a plaster on our knee! When my friend cries, | try to be very kind to them. Social Situation Stories 4036. When Grown Ups are Talking ‘When grown ups are talking, | have to wait to talk. It's polite to wait. | can say “excuse me” but they may still say “please wait”. | stand quietly and wait till the grown ups ask me what | need to say. |am learning not to interrupt. That makes my teacher happy with me. © When grown ups are talking to each other, | have to wait to talk to them. It's not very easy waiting when | want to talk. It is polite to wait. Grown ups do not like to be interrupted. Interrupting grown ups is not good because they think it is rude. Achild is supposed to wait for an adult to stop speaking before they speak to them. | am learning to wait. If | go and stand near my teacher when she is talking to another grown up, she knows that | want to speak to her. Sometimes she looks at me and puts her hand on my shoulder. That tells me that she knows | am waiting for her. | don't like waiting but | try to stay calm. | can take deep breaths and count to 10. That helps me to wait. | stand quietly and wait until the grown ups ask me what | need to say. | am learning not to interrupt them. That makes my teacher pleased with me. She says “well done for waiting so patiently”. Social Situation Stories 41Community and Home Settings 37. Having my Haircut |am Michael and | have brown hair. My hair grows all the time. When it gets long | have to have a haircut. | sit in the big chair. | don't like the tickly feeling or the sound of the scissors chopping. It helps if | look in the mirror to see what is happening. It helps if | take my symbol card and can show the “STOP PLEASE” symbol. My dad talked to the hairdresser and they will stop if | ask them to. | can take my weighted blanket with me. That helps me feel better. | look great when I have a new haircut! Social Situation Stories 4238. Commenting on other People’s Appearance My name is Dan and | am 10 years old. | go out to town with my dad on Saturdays. Sometimes | watch people in town. They all look very different to each other. Some people are very big and some people are very little. Some people are rather funny looking and are not very pretty. It's important that | don’t make comments when | think people look funny. It would make them upset. We don’t say a person is fat. We don't say a person is very old and wrinkly. It may be true that they are fat, or old and wrinkly but it's not nice to say so. It can be very tricky to understand this. When someone looks very nice or is wearing nice clothes, that is OK to say. That is called a compliment. Dad says it's hard to understand about when to talk about how a person looks. He says I should not make comments about people if | don’t know them. He says | should not make comments about people | know if it’s about them being fat or old. | know not to tell them that I think they are fat or old. | am learning to be grown up and polite. That makes my Dad proud of me. We have a great time in town every Saturday. Social Situation Stories 4339. When it is time to sit and be quiet | am Susan and | am 7 years old. | go to church with my mum and sister Chloe. We sit in the church and join in with the singing. Mum takes colouring for us to do and Chloe and | sit on the floor and colour. Sometimes everyone is really quiet in the church. When everyone is quiet, Chloe and | have to be quiet too. When everyone is quiet, it means that they are thinking very hard. Mum likes us to be quiet when everyone is quiet in church. When Chloe and | are really quiet at Church, mum takes us to the park on the way home. 40. Out Shopping We go shopping in town with Mum and Dad. My baby brother sits in the trolley and | walk holding Dad’s hand. There are lots of interesting things in the shop. Dad tells me that | must not touch things in the shop. Sometimes | really, really want to touch. If | touch and break something, Dad has to pay for it. That makes Dad cross because he did not want to pay for it and it's broken. Mum and Dad are pleased with me when | hold Dad’s hand and don’t touch things. | like to make Mum and Dad pleased with me. Social Situation Stories 4441. Paying ina Shop | go to the shop to spend my pocket money. I have £1 to spend. like having my pocket money and | count how much | have in my purse. If | want to buy something at the shop, | have to give the shop keeper some of my pocket money. | choose what | want to buy. My mum helps me check that | have enough money to pay. | go to the counter and put what | want to buy on the counter. The shopkeeper tells me how much of my pocket money | have to give them. I give the money to the shopkeeper. It's OK to put the money on the counter or | can give them the money in their hand. If | have given them more money than it costs, then | get some change to put back in my purse. Then | can take what | have bought. Sometimes you are given a piece of paper with writing on it, which is called a receipt. It proves that | have given the money and that the item | have bought now belongs to me. ' keep the receipt until | get home. | can keep it for a few days if | want to or | can put the receipt in the bin. I go to the shop | take my money to buy a... [picture of item to be bought] I find the ....... | take it to the shop counter. | give my money to the shop keeper. | take the ....... out of the shop with me because | have paid for it. It belongs to me now. cial Situation Stories 4542. Touching Inappropriate Things Ben likes to touch things. He touches lots of things in the classroom. He touches the toys and the pens. He touches the books and the games. These are all OK to touch. Ben does not touch the computer. The computer is not for Ben. Ben does not touch Mrs Hill’s bag. Mrs Hill’s bag does not belong to Ben. Ben can enjoy and play with all the toys that are in the class. He is a good boy at school. 43. Eating Inappropriate Things Ben eats his snack at school. Ben eats his school dinner. These are good to eat and make Ben's body grow strong and healthy. Ben does not eat glue. Ben does not eat paint. These make his tummy poorly. Glue and paint are for making pictures. Ben can tell Mrs Smith what is good to eat. He eats apples. They are good. He eats his dinner. That makes his body grow strong and healthy. Social Situation Stories 4644. Going to Public Toilets I'm James and | am twelve years old. | go into town with my parents to do shopping. We walk around the shops and buy what we need to buy. If we are hungry, we go to a cafe and get food to eat and a drink. | need to go to the toilet at the cafe as its a long way home on the bus. When we go to toilets in town, | have to be sure that | am private and close the door of the cubicle. It is important that | go into the toilet cubicle and shut the door. This is so that other people don’t see me taking my trousers down. This is how you go to the toilet in a cafe or at a shop. Other people may come in and use a different toilet and they shut their door too. It is important that | pull my trousers up and do my zip up before | come out of the toilet cubicle. Then | wash my hands and go back to find my family in the cafe. ABPVIceE When a young person is learning the social rules of public toilets, it’s probably a good idea to choose one particular place to work on. This will ensure that you know how many cubicles there are, if there are urinals, if it is unisex and so on. When you start to think about this, there are many variations and unspoken rules about using public toilets which may be mystifying to the young person. Work on a story about one public toilet first, and then introduce the idea that other toilets may be different, but that you still maintain privacy and so on. You may want to use visual cues such as different signs for men’s and women's toilets. You may need to explain that these can be different signs in different places. Keeping safe and stranger danger is important to raise alongside this topic. Remember to be clear about the most important points for this individual child, and work on that first. You can then make additional points and expand the story, but do not overload with information at the beginning of using a social situation story to teach these skills. Social Situation Stories 4745. | Wash my Hands | wash my hands when they are dirty. | wash my hands before snack time. | wash my hands before lunch. | wash my hands when | have been to the toilet. | wash my hands even if they don’t look dirty. |_am learning to keep my hands clean. That makes my mum and dad happy and proud of me. 46. My Pet has Died My name is Peter. | am 5. My mum and dad say: “Everything that is alive will die one day. This is part of life that we can’t change”. When a pet dies it means that their body stops working. They don't breathe any more. Their heart stops beating. They don’t feel hurt. My hamster died. His name was Nibbles. I miss him and | feel sad. | feel sad because | can’t play with him any more. When people are sad, they cry. Crying is OK when you feel sad. Sometimes you feel better if you cry. Mum says that | can tell her | feel sad and she will give me a hug. Dad says he is sorry that | feel sad and he gives me extra hugs too. Social Situation Stories 4847. Sitting at the Table to Eat My name is Jack. There are three children in my family and we live with my mum. We eat dinner at 6 o'clock. Mum cooks dinner. She makes dinners that we like to eat. We sit at the table together. | sit on my chair. | stay on my chair until Mum says | can go and play. | eat my dinner with my family. It is good to sit together to eat dinner. We can talk to each other. | hear about what my brother did today. | can tell my brother and sister about what | did at school. NG NI Mum says she is happy when we sit on our chairs. We all eat our dinner together every day. Social Situation Stories 4948. Saying Hello/Bye to People | know/Don’t know When | go into school | see people that | know. | know lots of children and | know some grown ups. | say hello and smile when | see people that | know. They may say hello back to me. Some people say “hi” or “good morning” or even “how are you?” These are all ways of saying hello to me. When | am out with my mum/dad sometimes they say hello to people that they don’t know. It's a way of adults being polite to neighbours or a shopkeeper. This is OK for grown ups. Children do not speak to people that they do not know. | do not talk to people | don’t know, but I like to say hello to my friends. When I go home from school, my teacher says “ bye” to the whole class. Sometimes she says “goodbye” to me when I go out the door. There are lots of ways of saying bye! My friends sometimes say “See you!” which is funny because when I've gone, they won't see me! Other people say “ta-tal!” or “Cheerio!” There are lots of ways to say bye. It is good to say bye bye to my friends and to my teacher. | say hello to my friend. She says hello back to me. We smile at each other because we are friends. ABPVICE The language of greeting can be very confusing to children. There are so many social subtleties in who we do speak to and who we don't. It is hard to explain why we would talk to a shopkeeper but not a person in the street. Some children will simply need to learn how to answer and what to say. This topic is a good introduction to further discussion with the child about stranger danger, but don't tush onto this until the child has established a good understanding of greeting friends! Social Situation Stories 50Anger Assembly Behaviour = being quiet Birthdays Changes to routines Choices Crying Death of a pet Eating - inappropriate items - at the table Finishing task Haircuts Illness Instructions Interests Listening ~ to. grown ups talking - onthe carpet - to others - circle time - assembly Line ups Nicknames Noise Play ~ asking a friend = joining a game - friend playing elsewhere - playing together Queues Relationships ~ working with others - making personal comments Sharing Shopping Speaking ~ putting hand up in class - asking for help - taking turns to talk - understanding phrases - saying hello/bye Swearing Teasing Timetables Toilets Touch Turn-taking Washing hands Waiting Upset 31, 39 23 13,44 28 15 2 31, 40 48 46 49 14 42 22 a 18,19 23 37 24 32 33 34 35 7 43 19, 20 44, 45 10 "1 27 30 50 25 38 15 47 26, 46 16 48 12 31,40 IndexFOSHON | ele By Alison Harris A collection of 48 social situation stories for teaching social and life skills to children with Autism and related disabilities. Written by a paediatric Occupational Therapist, these lively stories will engage children and help teach them basic skills as well as making them more comfortable in dealing with and reacting to social cues. Examples of stories include situations such as being teased, understanding when a friend does not want to play, other people's birthdays, making choices, appropriate touch and waiting. TTT. Coa 7819061213312) > Seer ot Re et ae eeu aed Kirkby in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, NG17 9GU Co t Ss TELEPHONE: 0500 318686 FAX: 0800 137 525 TTT eee ec eme cot kent Beye eel siecle 9 Eyre eran Cnant€ Areiale 1G Bua Als psy are PlOlGhes Areh Seely Be ee) ea | DIFFICULTIES _ Ican choose Special Direct @TTS Park Lane Business Park, Kirkby-in-Ashfield a G179GU @ 73 318 www.specialdirect.com Notting! by Alison Harris and Sarah DavisAuthors Alison Harris and Sarah Davis Designer Caroline Massingham Text © 2012 Alison Harris and Sarah Davis © 2012 TIS Group Published by TIS Group Unit 1 Park Lane Business Park Kirkoy-in-Ashfield Nottinghamshire NG17 9GU wwwtts-group.co.uk British Library Cataloguing-in-publishing Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-906213-58-9 The fight of Alison Hontis and Sarah Davis to be identified os the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, All rights reserved. This book is sold subject fo the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, hired ‘out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which itis published and with a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed upon the subsequent purchaser, No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or Iransmitted. in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. This book remains copyright, although permission is granted to copy pages where indicated for classroom cisiribution and used only in the school which has purchased the book, or by the teacher who has purchased the book, and in accordance wilh the CLA licensing agreement Due to the nature of the web, the publisher cannot guarantee the content or links of any of the websites referred to, It is the responsbily of the reader to assess the suitability of websites. Charlotte's Story Charlotte is a little worried as she sets off for school. Although she likes school, she finds it really tricky. All the other children seem to do things so much better than she does. Charlotte's mum reminds her that she is just as clever and as able as the other children, it's just that she needs a little more time to know what she is doing. In the playground, some of Charlotte's friends are playing Mums and Dads. Charlotte likes to play but she can never make the other children listen to her ideas. This upsets Charlotte and sometimes she feels really mad! Today she thinks she will try to join in. “| mum,” says Charlotte. The other children are confused. “You're not a mum, Charlotte,” they say, laughing. “You're a girl, silly." Charlotte knows she isn’t a mum, but is asking to pretend to be the mum. Charlotte often misses words out in her sentences and the children may misunderstand her. Charlotte feels cross and upset then. She is not silly and thinks the other children treat her as if she is. fyWhile Charlotte is with the other children, her mum talks to Mrs Judge, her class teacher. They talk about all the things that help Charlotte. Mrs Judge uses a choosing board as Charlotte may become confused if there are too many choices. The bell rings and everyone goes into class. Mrs Judge takes the register and calls Charlotte’s name. All the children are supposed to say “Yes, Mrs Judge”, and this is when Charlotte starts to get worried again. “Judge” is a hard word for Charlotte to say and in the past some children laughed when she said “Yes, Mrs Dudge.” Now Charlotte has learnt to say just “Yes, Mrs J”, which is much easier. The other children then copy that, which makes Charlotte happy. Today it is Show and Tell and everyone has brought in something to talk about. Charlotte feels funny in her tummy. She hates talking in front of lots of people. She worries that the others may laugh at her if she says the wrong words. Charlotte has practised for Show and Tell at home and with Mrs Lavender, her teaching assistant, so she will feel really confident when her turn arrives. Charlotte's mum has had a good idea. She has asked if Mrs Lavender can help remind Charlotte about what she wants to show and talk about by holding up little photos at the back of the class. Mrs Judge asks Charlotte to take her turn first. Charlotte likes being first as it means that she won't forget her story while listening to others in her class. As agreed, Mrs Lavender sits at the back of the class holding up reminder pictures to help her talk about the picture of her grandma at school. The other children don't even know Mrs Lavender is doing this, which makes Charlotte feel great. Charlotte finishes her story and feels really proud. When Charlotte listens to other children’s stories she notices that she is not the only one who has difficulties in saying words. Becky says “sukar" instead of “sugar”, Tom says “lickle” instead of “little” and poor Isaac forgets what he is talking about completely and has to be helped by Mrs Lavender too. It makes Charlotte feel better, knowing that others get nervous when speaking in front of the whole group.Mrs Judge is really pleased with the children's efforts and tells everyone they can have 15 minutes of Golden Time today. After playtime, Charlotte needs to do her 1:1 work with Mrs Lavender. They have been working on hersounds. Mrs Lavender uses something called cued articulation. This is like a little sign next to your mouth, to help you know how to make the sound. Charlotte sometimes uses special colours too to help her remember each sound. Soon it is lunchtime and Mrs Bains, the midday supervisor, helps her decide what to have. Charlotte finds it difficult when there are many choices, so Mrs Bains offers her fish fingers or chicken pie. After lunch, Charlotte helps Mrs Lavender with jobs - it gives her the opportunity to work on her speech targets, and it's fun! Charlotte is asked to take a message to Miss Smith in year 2. “Can you ask Miss Smith for the paint cupboard key?” says Mrs Lavender. Before Charlotte sets off next door, Mrs Lavender takes her hand and says, “Paint cupboard key.” Off Charlotte goes. She practises it over and over again in her head: “Paint cupboard key, paint cupboard key.” She likes it _ when people don't give paint her long instructions. Short C capboard ) instructions help her to “key remember. ww Oo Charlotte delivers the message to Miss Smith and hurries back. She is pleased with herself wnen she gives the key to Mrs Lavender. Next Charlotte works on her colourful semantics sentence building. This helps her to remember all the important words in sentences. Charlotte loves her school work when she knows what she is expected to do.“You have worked really hard, Charlotte, and remembered all your sounds and colours. Soon it will be playtime. Go and look on the board to see who you will buddy up with this playtime.” says Mrs Lavender. Charlotte goes to the board and finds that Lucy’s photo is next to hers for afternoon play. Charlotte loves playing outside with Lucy as she has lots of good games to play. After Golden Time, it is soon home time. Charlotte thinks about how well she spoke in Show and Tell. She feels more confident about doing it again next time. She has also had a great playtime with the other children and, best of all, she is going back to Millie’s house for tea. Charlotte smiles to herself. Every day, she is more able to talk to her friends and talk in front of her class. She feels proud of herself. COMMUNICATION DIFFICULTIES Understanding terminology There are a number of specific communication difficulties with which your child may need help. These are divided into the following broad types. Phonological difficulties: Speech sounds develop in a clear developmental pattern. Some children have difficulty in using the rules for making sounds. When children experience phonological difficultie: sounds are stored incorrectly in their brain. Therefore the child may have stored “I” for "y”, so “yellow” would be recalled as “lellow". Many young children experiment with sounds and experience some eariier errors which they correct themselves. For other children the production errors stay, and they need to develop using the correct sounds through speech and language therapy. Articulation difficulties; When children experience articulation difficulties, the sounds are incorrectly produced physically. The child has difficulty in getting their lips, tongue, teeth and jaw in the cortect place in order to produce the sound. Skills developed in feeding are then used in speaking, Therefore if the child has, or continues to have, messy eating habits or limited eating skills they may need to work on their oral placement skills. Oral motor/placement activities help exercise the muscles used in speech and feeding, The development of oral placement skills involves using exercises which relate directly to speech production, and these can be very successful. An approach called Talk Tools founded in the USA has made great steps forward possible. Alongside this, the Nuffield Dyspraxia programme and other such articulation resources have developed sets of pictures to help with "“driling" practice - repeatedly practising sound production with the child through speech and language therapy. ‘Comprehension difficulties: Comprehension means “understanding”. When children experience comprehension difficulties, they are having trouble in understanding language, whether that is single words or longer sentences. Assessments can be Used to evaluate exactly how many words your child understands and how many words they can understand in sentences. Categories are broken down into size concepts (big andlittle), location concepts (in, on, under), adjectives (fast, shiny, smooth) and pronouns (I, you, he, she, him, her} as examples. if the child has difficulty in understanding a concept, they will not be able to use (say) the concept either. The ability to understand always develops before the ability to use these concepts in speech. Expressive difficulties: When children experience difficulties with the expression of language, they are having difficulty in using words or sentences to say what they want to express. Assessments can evaluate which concepts a child knows how to say and which ones need more work. Language is used for commenting, greeting, questioning, reasoning and negating, and the child needs fo have all of these skills in place to interact confidently using spoken language. Attention and listening: In order to develop a good understanding of language, the child must develop the ability to listen and attend. This means that they will be able to recognise that informationis important and that sentences which an adult says to them need to be understood and perhaps acted upon. Children develop concentration through play and through tum taking. Therefore as parents you have often started to develop this skill in your child without tealising it. If your child has problems in this area, they are likely to have speech sound and/or language difficulties and they may be missing what is being said to or asked of them. Somechildren have glue ear when they are toddlers; it is important to rule out the possibility that your child has that or any other hearing difficulty which is hindering their speech and language development. Vital signs that may indicate a hearing problem include not responding to their name, tuming the TV up and/or standing too close to it, as well as not understanding what is said when they are not making eye contact with you. Verbal dyspraxia: When children are diagnosed with verbal dyspraxia, they are having difficulty with the physical production of sounds, along with the sequencing and timing of using sounds in words. The child may struggle to say the word on request but can often say the word when speaking spontaneously. Speech and language therapists may use a combination of articulation therapy and phonological therapy to help them. Some children may experience motor dyspraxia at the same time, affecting their coordination and organisation skills. Others may experience one or the other. Word-finding difficulties: When children experience word-finding difficulties, they often know the word they want to say but cannot retrieve it - as if it’s “on the tip of their tongue”. Work can be done to support the child in making stronger links in the brain when storing and retrieving words, such as using mind maps to help organise vocabulary. A speech and language therapist would assess and diagnose this difficulty. Dysfluent speech: When children experience dysfiuency [stammer/stutter), the sounds or words may become "stuck" and they may repeat a sound or a word or miss them out altogether. Research has found that a combination of reasons affect a child who is dysfiuent. Common ones are discrete environmental pressure (pressure of time, competition to speak), internal pressure placed on themselves (getting it wrong) and mistiming of the speech musculature that produces the sounds. Many children experience normal non-fuency as a toddler and throughout pre-school. It is highly important that a child who experiences dysfiuency sees a speech and language therapist for an assessment as early as possible. Leaving it to be resolved later often leads to a more established stammer. Socialcommunication difficulties: Whena child experiences difficulty withsocial communication, they may have the following problems: struggling with verbal and non-verbal language, failure to read body language and facial expression, difficulty in making eye contact, struggling to stay on topic when they speak, failure to realise when they have lost the listener's attention, difficulty in repairing a conversation when it breaks down, and struggling to understand rules. A speech and language therapist can work with a number of resources such as the Talk About and the Social Use of Language Programme (SULP) to target areas of social communication and help your child improve in these areas. How can you help? If you have concems about a child's communication, it is essential that the child has an assessment from a speech and language therapist. This will help to determine precisely which parts of the child's communication are delayed and how you can support the child. Speech and language therapists will also establish whether they need to work on the foundations of communication - such as attention, listening and understanding of language - in order that you can support the child in learning to use language. What programmes can be used? f a child has been assessed, the speech and language therapist will advise on which approaches may be useful. The following programmes of work may be used, depending on the reals) of difficulty experienced by the child. The list should be helpful when you are speaking to a therapist, who will be able to inform you if any of these approaches would be appropriate for your child Colourful semantics to support sentence building: This approach uses coloured boxes and corresponding photos to support the child in sentence building. This helps not only to develop key words in the child's sentences but also the grammatical joining words such as “the”, “and”, “in the" and “by the”. The programme helps children's spoken and written language and provides a motivating method to support them in achieving this. Contact Daisy Kits for information. Cued articulation to support literacy and production of speech sounds: This approach makes use of a set of signs to represent the place, voice and manner of the spoken sound used by the child. In this way the child uses kinesthetic learning, which means that they are calling upon more than one sense to help produce sounds. The system also has a colour-coded version which allows children to mark letters in their reading and writing. This helps them become better at reading, spelling and writing. Contact Cued Articulation and Thrass. Symbols and visual communication systems: Examples are Boardmaker and Communicate in Print. Many symbol systems are available to help parents and schools make small pictures to support children in understanding spoken instructions, These allow you to make visual timetables, reward charts, activity sheets and much more. Sign systems: These include Makaton, Signed Support English and Signalong. These signing systems focus on the words rather than the individual sounds in speech. They ensure that the child's language is still developing even if their speech production is poor at the time. There isno evidence to suggest that signing with your child prevents spoken language from developing. On the contrary, babies who use signing can often communicate their needs earlier than others. Contact Makaton and Signalong. Language programmes to support social skills: Examples are Talk About and Social Use of Language Programme (SULP). These programmes help to break down and teach the rules ‘of good social communication - such as turn taking, staying on topic and checking listener feedback. The programmes can be used for individuals and for group sessions. Other language programmes: These include Language Steps, Rhodes to Language and CLIP sheets, There are many published language packs that therapists can provide that will enable parents and teachers to work on specific aspects of language, such as pronouns; he/she/it/ we/theit/them. Contact Stass Publications. Speech sound programmes: For example, the Nuffield Dyspraxia programme and Black Sheep worksheets. There are several speech sound programmes which therapists use to target speech sound production. Often the therapists will adapt support to make use of the phonics programme the child is using in school too, such as Jolly Phonics. Oral placement programmes: These include Talk Tools. For some children speech sound difficulties are linked to the physical inability to produce sounds. Others cannot store the correct sounds in their head and therefore use the wrong sound. Talk Tools helps children to use the positions needed in feeding to develop the positions needed in spoken language. If a child's oral placement skills are not established in feeding, there is likely to be a knock-on effect in their speech production. 10 VWHow can | access a speech and language assessment? Parents no longer need to go to their doctor or health visitor in order to seek support for their child; most speech and language therapy departments now presently run an open referral system. A child may be referred by their parent to the local NHS speech and language therapy department free of charge. If you type the words “refering a child for NHS speech and language therapy in [county], into a search engine, that will take you to advice about your local health service facilities and systems. There is no age requirement for a referral; you can refer a child as soon as you have concerns. The earlier the child can be assessed, the better. After referral, you should receive nofification in the post about when your assessment will take place. There is also the option of finding an independent speech and language therapist. It is likely that they will be able to see you sooner and offer the same therapists throughout your child's therapy sessions. A list may be obtained from the Association of Speech and Language Therapists in Independent Practice (ASLTIP). How can help be given in the classroom? There is no doubt that some strategies used at home and in the classroom have a great impact inhelping the child develop their language and communication skills. Here is a lst of suggestions. Try to keep your language simple: Be sure to use the most important words when giving an instruction so that the child understands what is required. For example, say “Leroy, write the date in your notebook” rather than “You should put the date down first.” Avoid long sentences: Break up what you say into chunks. Use the child’s name and make physical contact to ensure you have their attention: You could make a tap on their arm. Don't repeat instructions in a different way: If they have not understood the firs time, they may simply need time to process the information you have given. Wait and say the same thing again if necessary. Allow time for processing: Children with speech, language and communication difficulties may take twice or three times as long to respond, but they will usually respond. They need to know that you will be understanding and patient. Help with “crowd control”: The child needs to be able to establish when it is their turn fo contribute and ensure others won't interrupt, Ensure there are clear class rules: These should cover good listening, turn taking and speaking. Try not to let other children speak for them: Also avoid letting other children answer their questions. Ensure that you are focused on the child when giving instructions: Avoid multitasking as this will distract them from the instruction. Ensure that the child is focused on you when you are giving instructions: Do be aware, though, that some children will need to use sensory fidgets to help them focus. Be explicit when giving instructions: For example, don't use words with double meanings (such as “break” and "brake" when talking about having a break or needing to brake). Tell the child what you want them to do rather than what you don't want them to do: An instruction such as “No running” may be heard as “Run” by the child with communication difficulties. Another example is that you should say “Listen to me" instead of "Please stop taking.” Use a range of methods to get the message across to the child: Hold up related objects, show photos, do the actions, use a sign. Any way and every way should be used to help you to access their learning style. Deal with selective mutism: Some children find it very difficult to talk at school. If a child has not spoken at school for two weeks, act before the problem becomes entrenched. Make a referral to the child's therapy team if appropriate, or contact the Selective Mutism Information and Research Association (SMIRA). Make the opportunity to explain to the whole class that some children may have difficulties: Point out that some children may have problems in following instructions, saying words, and sitting and listening, but they are important members of the class. All the children are to be kind and considerate fo each other. Pair children who will support each other's skills: Don't always pair the most able with the most needy as this may create too much of a contrast for the child that is struggling. Use buddy systems in the classroom and playground: These help to build up the confidence of less able children. Try to be consistent in your teaching systems: Avoid swapping in and out of phonic systems - stick to one that the child is confident with, Ensure that the parents know your strategies/approaches for teaching maths and literacy: This information avoids the child becoming confused between home and school. Use a home-school diary: Feed back information between home and school. Use video cameras to record children completing activities: This can provide a useful baseline for teaching staff, and also a useful way to feed back to the child and the parent about things you have observed (positive and negative) Use visual systems in the classroom: Choice boards, visual timetables and buddy boards are all very useful in aiding children’s understanding and memory. Visual prompts remain when spoken words are gone within seconds. Speech and language activities need to be completed litle and offen in order to have an impact: Be sure to ask your speech and language therapist to demonstrate programmes of work/activities, so that you and the child's parents feel confident in carrying them out. Raise concems about a child's speech and language development as soon as you note them: Waiting is not going to help the child catch up. It is better to access services and get advice as early as possible. Listen to parents’ concerns about their child's speech and language development at home: The child often presents differently at home from at school. 12 13Useful websites for information Afasic http://www.afasicengland.org. uk/ ‘Association for Research into Stammering in Childhood: hitp://www.stammeringcentre.org/ Association of Speech and Language Therapists in independent Practice (ASLTIP) http://www.helpwithtalking.com/ British Stammering Association: http://www.stammering.org/ Dyspraxia Foundation hitp://www.dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk/ Hearing Link hitp://www.hearinglink.org/ Independent Parental Special Education Advice http://www. ipsea.org.uk/ Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists: http://www rcsltorg/ Selective Mutism Information and Research Association (SMIRA): ttp://Awww.smira.org.uk/ Useful websites for resourcing Special Direct: For a wide range of special needs equipment for therapists, schools and parents: hitp://www.specialdirect.com/ Black Sheep Press: http://www.blacksheeppress.co.Uk/ Boardmaker: http://www. mayer-johnson.co.uk/ Communicate in Print: hitp://ww.widgit.com/products/inprint/indexhim Cued Articulation: http://www.thrass. co.uk/cuedarticulation.htm Daisy Kits: http://www. daisykits.co.uk/ Integrated Treatment Services: http://www.integratedtreatments. CO.UK/ Makaton: http://www.makaton. orgs Nuffield Centre Dyspraxia Programme: _hitp://www.ndp3.org/ Signalong: http://www signalong.org.uk/ Social Use of Language Programme: _hitip://wwnw.wendyrinaldi.com/wr-sulp-usnim speech-language therapy.com - Caroline Bowen: niip://speech-language-therapy.com/ Stass Publications: http://www stasspublications.co.uk/ Talk About: http://www.alexkelly.biz/ Talk Tools: http://www.talktools.com/ 14