Guidelines on introducing and using social stories effectively,so that they produce the benefits you intend. The next time Tom or someone calls me “kid”, I’ll tell them my name and that I don’t like being called kid. Stories should appeal to the interests of the personthey are written forand avoid using words that may cause the person anxiety or distress. The content and presentation of social stories should be appropriate to the person's age and level of understanding. Use age-appropriate photographs, picture symbols or drawings with text to help people who have difficulty reading or for younger children.

Rogers, M. F., & Myles, B. S. (2001). Using social stories and comic strip conversations to interpret social situations for an adolescent with Asperger syndrome. Intervention in School and Clinic, 36(5), 310–313. Figure 3 (above) shows some symbols taken fromCarol Gray's Comic strip conversations(1994). The symbolsrepresent a range of concepts that may be involved in a conversation. Collect information about the situation you want to describe in your social story. Where does the situation occur? Who is itwith? How does it begin and end? How long does it last? What actually happens in the situation and why? If it is for a situation where a particular outcome is not guaranteed, use words like ‘sometimes’ and ‘usually’ in the story. Ask school what supervision your child or young person has during unstructured times. It’s also useful for all support staff to have some autism awareness training, particularly those offering playground support. Colours can be used to indicate the importance or significance of tasks (and therefore help to prioritise tasks and work through them in a logical sequence).For example, work in a red tray or file could be urgent, work in a green tray or file could be pending, while work in a blue tray or file is not important or has no timescale attached to it. Homework, assignments and deadlines can cause great anxiety for some people. Others will not register their significance. The following strategiescanhelp: Timmins,Dr.S. (2016)Successful Social Stories for Young Children with AutismJessicaKingsley Publishers You can use times of day (morning, afternoon or evening) or days of the week to help plan and organise tasks, social activities and other events. For example, Saturday is shopping day, Wednesday is bills day, Thursday night is homework night.

Wragge, A. (2011). Social narratives: Online training module. In Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence (OCALI), Autism Internet Modules, www.autisminternetmodules.org. Columbus: OCALI. Use thought bubbles to show what the student was thinking and what they think the other people were thinking. making a clear to do list at the beginning of the day - you can then cover up or mark off work which has been completed One form of bullying is social exclusion. It can help autistic children and young people to have a ‘buddy’ during unstructured times. This could be a peer who spends lunchtime with your child or young person, either regularly or when there is a particular need.Wherever possible, it’s important to have an open and mutually supportive relationship with your child or young person’s school. Here are some ideas that you can try or suggest to school to help your child feel more comfortable in the school environment during break and lunch time. One or all of these can affect a person's ability to organise, prioritise and sequence. For example, if you struggle to understand the concept of time, how do you plan what you will do over the course of a week? Ask school if they use any social education programmes and whether your child or young person could be included. It is important that your child has identified adults that they can talk to about concerns. Having more than one person will avoid them becoming stressed due to the absence of an identified adult. It’s important that autistic pupils also have the opportunity to interact socially, but use this resource carefully by monitoring the need for and benefit of it with your child regularly.