Product Description

A collection of social stories for teaching social and life skills to children on the autism spectrum. Taking the form of short narratives, the stories take children step-by-step through basic activities such as brushing your teeth, taking a bath and wearing a safety belt in the car. These stories are written for pre-schoolers aged from two to six and form a primer for non-autistic as well as autistic children. There are approximately 100 stories, and there are line illustrations throughout which form a visual counterpart to the text. An introduction explains to parents and carers how to use the book.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37396 in Books
• Published on: 2001-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 141 pages

About the Author
Carol Gray has extensive experience of working with children with autistic spectrum disorders. She teaches at Jenison Public School in Michigan, USA, is the editor of The Morning News, a newsletter on autistic spectrum disorders, and lectures internationally.

Customer Reviews

My Social Stories Book
My son is 6 years old with high functioning autism. I found this book extremely helpful. He struggles with all issues around personal hygiene and general domestic stuff like eating at the table etc. I typed up the stories relevant to him and used the great pictures to create his own social story book. I changed some of the wording to be less american but apart from that I found the stories easy for him to understand and they've proved to be revolutionary. He is now having his toenails cut and his hair without fuss and actually asks to read the story whilst this is being done. As a parent I cannot praise this book enough - I wish I'd bought it 2 years ago!

A geat idea, shame the book isn't better
Social stories are a great strategy for teaching children on the autistic spectrum about what to do in situations they find difficult. I use them with families a lot and they work well. The only problem is that the book has only a few pages on how to write a good social story, and the rest of the book is 100 example stories written by American Psychology students. Some are okay, but most you would want to customise anyway. I'd have much preferred more on how to write the stories and why they work, and a few strong examples. As it is the books feels like a great idea, but a lot of filler.

Informative but not very readable
Social stories are an invaluable tool for explaining social situations, rules and conventions to an ASD child. However, this book does not do the subject justice. In my opinion this book does not explain the concept of social stories clearly, nor does it make it clear how a story may be written and tailored to the needs of an individual child. This book may of course be aimed at childcare professionals but as a parent I found the following book much more helpful and most importantly useable: Writing and Developing Social Stories: Practical Interventions In Autism by Caroline Smith (also available on Amazon).