Social Stories
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Social stories are a great way to help students with Williams Syndrome understand how to display appropriate social behaviour and improve social skills. They can also be used to help students understand expectations, new activities, and social rules. Individuals with Williams Syndrome are known to have 'cocktail party communication'; they are happy to go talk to anyone and everyone and do not necessarily have boundaries
on how to interact, as you can see in the |
video. Since there is not sufficient amount of information on strategies to support people who have Williams Syndrome, we related this to individuals on the Autism Spectrum. Although people with autism have different social difficulties, social stories can be modified towards social difficulties for students with Williams.
Creating a Social Story
Social stories should explicitly cover who, what, where, when, and why in relation to a individualized and specific situation. They should be short, with obvious social cues, so that the individual with WS is able to follow and understand the story. These should be written in first person language, so that the student can put the situation into perspective. For individuals with Williams, it is important to verbally review the story, as they have strong auditory reasoning. Depending on the individual, using words and/or pictures may be more appropriate. If you are creating a social story with words for a student with WS, always ensure that you are there to provide support as writing can be extremely difficult for them do to their visual-spatial difficulties.
Social stories use 3 different types of sentences: descriptive, perspective, and directive.
Descriptive: answer the 'W' questions, describe what is happening in the situation that occurs, relevant factors
Perspective: describe how all people involved (including self) may feel when the situation occurs
Directive: presents a ideal and positive choice of how to respond to the situation, what you are working on doing
Social stories should consist of mainly descriptive and perspective sentences, not overusing directive sentences (5:1). This allows for students to contextualize the situations and focus on working on one skill per story. Prior to creating this story, ensure that you have seen the child in the situation so that you are able to consider their actions and feelings in the story
Social stories use 3 different types of sentences: descriptive, perspective, and directive.
Descriptive: answer the 'W' questions, describe what is happening in the situation that occurs, relevant factors
Perspective: describe how all people involved (including self) may feel when the situation occurs
Directive: presents a ideal and positive choice of how to respond to the situation, what you are working on doing
Social stories should consist of mainly descriptive and perspective sentences, not overusing directive sentences (5:1). This allows for students to contextualize the situations and focus on working on one skill per story. Prior to creating this story, ensure that you have seen the child in the situation so that you are able to consider their actions and feelings in the story
Example social story:
When I feel I must talk
Sometimes I want to say things very badly, it feels like I have to say it right that second.
It’s important to wait until the other person is finished talking.
Even though it feels important, it can wait.
They will listen to me better if I wait patiently.
When I interrupt, it just angers people.
If I can wait, I can tell them later.
Example from: PBIS World - Social Stories by B. K. Morris
When I feel I must talk
Sometimes I want to say things very badly, it feels like I have to say it right that second.
It’s important to wait until the other person is finished talking.
Even though it feels important, it can wait.
They will listen to me better if I wait patiently.
When I interrupt, it just angers people.
If I can wait, I can tell them later.
Example from: PBIS World - Social Stories by B. K. Morris