All About Autism

[ImMeeMee]

slmkhoo and schweppes, thanks for information. My dd3 is now 5 years old, and I do find carol gray's sample stories too 'chim' for me to even read to her. in her book she didnt mention anything about age adaptation, so I am puzzled as to how I can apply them to her.


I also find her stories require some background knowledge on certain subjects before we can apply, eg. the context of 'history' is used in her stories. but if the child does not even know what is history or what it entails, I wouldnt expect the child to relate.

Would you be able to give an example of a social story that you told or wrote for your child? While I am aware of the principles behind, I need something tangible to work with and verify whether what I am doing to a much younger child is correct.

thanks again.

[schweppes]

ImMeeMee:

slmkhoo and schweppes, thanks for information. My dd3 is now 5 years old, and I do find carol gray's sample stories too 'chim' for me to even read to her. in her book she didnt mention anything about age adaptation, so I am puzzled as to how I can apply them to her.


I also find her stories require some background knowledge on certain subjects before we can apply, eg. the context of 'history' is used in her stories. but if the child does not even know what is history or what it entails, I wouldnt expect the child to relate.

Would you be able to give an example of a social story that you told or wrote for your child? While I am aware of the principles behind, I need something tangible to work with and verify whether what I am doing to a much younger child is correct.

thanks again.

can't remember where i kept those social skills graphics that i did. so sorry. Will upload sample pics if I can find them stashed in the storeroom.

but, these were some of the themes that i wrote about:

1) before going to school (this is just the morning scene preparing to go to sch...) so it will include, time to wake up -> brush teeth -> bath -> dress up -> breakfast -> wait for sch bus -> go to sch

2) at school : describing what happens

3) during recess : describing from the time when bell rings to buy food...

4) after school : she goes to grandma's house after school, so i prepared a storyline describing what she can do at grandma's place

5) making new friends : what to say

6) bullies

... etc

Basically, you need to keep your storyline bite size. Keep it short and simple, so that it's easy for the child to grasp and understand. U need to visualize in your head the steps that might take place.

That's why drawing stick figures with thought bubble is useful - less time consuming for u and you can customize the storyline to how u see fit.

I took the task as a creative outlet. Not the drawing part - can't draw to save my life (hence the stick figures) - but enjoyed the creative story writing part.

If you don't use sketch book, another way is to draw on A4 size printing paper. Use color pencils/ pens to add colors to your visuals.

Hope that helps

[Audvis]

Hi ImMeeMee, or u can buy/borrow the book by Jed Baker "The Social Skills Picture Book Teaching Play, Emotion and Communication to Children With Autism". I think it’s available in NLB.

[Audvis]

Inside this book u will find photographs showing the correct & wrong way to react under certain situations, eg how to make friends, dealing with losing, accept "No" for an answer. Incidentally, Weecare uses this book in their individual therapy sessions. What I find useful is to read the story with the child, then role-play the same scenario.

[ImMeeMee]

thanks schweppes, audvis and slmkhoo!!! for the invaluable sharing. you have given me the idea to put up some social stories first to guide dd3 on events and happenings, and then slowly extend them to social settings on how to deal with peers when she is older.


slmkhoo, having just read carol gray’s book, I must say your social stories are well written …

will definitely check out the book by Jed Baker for kids.

I am also checking out professional help on social skills class and see how these can help.

cheers!!

[mashy]

I've just borrowed Jed Baker's book over the weekend. ya, I think it's useful. I haven't been able to start on it yet though. Sigh.


He's been in trouble at home lately. Not doing school work and in dream land.

[helplessmum3]

is it hard to read?

[mashy]

It’s just big photos with short descriptions. Very easy to follow. U can see the preview of it in amazon.com

[helplessmum3]

Thanks mashy

[ImMeeMee]

mummies, happy to report that social stories seem to work ...


for the longest time dd3 has been playing her giant toy truck in a very noisy (sometimes to the extent of being irritating) fashion. so I tried my hand at putting up a social story for her, with pictures and simple sentences, on how playing the toy in that particular manner is noisy, what is the consequence of being noisy and what she can do to enjoy herself and at the same time not make it so noisy.

and it WORKS! while there are some instances that she still plays too noisily, these instances have greatly reduced. Better still, when she plays in a noisy manner, she will look at me to see my reaction, and when I give some prompts without verbalising, she is able to take the cue and cut back on her noise.

:dancing: :dancing:

this has been ongoing for the past one week and I am so happy with the outcome! of course, the social story definitely needs some finetuning (my skills of writing social stories not there yet) and a lot of patience to repeat the story day after day is required, but I am celebrating that at least it is working out and I can work on this as a methodology to teach dd3 different things.

thanks to the mummies who have helped me with the understanding on social stories. Its really a step of achievement for both dd3 and myself!

:rahrah: :boogie: :rahrah: :boogie: