Sorry I’ve been MIA. I meant to already posted a blog on this topic, but life happened. So here goes:
This past Monday was My AwesomeA’s first day of Kindergarten. The week before we all met his teacher and the teacher’s aid and got to hangout in his new classroom. I used that time to take pictures of EVERYTHING. Sure documenting this milestone in my son’s life was a part of the reason, but my true motives centered around preparing him for this transition. Changes and transitions are often times difficult for most children and sometimes these changes and transitions can be a lot harder for children on the Autism Spectrum. I took pictures of various areas of the room; where he’d be sitting, the rack where he’d hang his book bag, the bathroom, etc. I also took pictures of his teacher, aid, the door to his classroom and of the school itself. I used these pictures to create a social story about going to a new school.
For those of you who may not know what a social story is *puts on ABA hat* a written or visual guide that describes various social interactions is a tool used to teach social skills, routines, and concepts.
The term was coined by a special education teacher, Carol Gray in 1990 and are simple yet so amazing. You can find a library of social stories HERE. This is just one place to find social stories that are already made and quick Google search of “Social Stories” and what you’re specifically looking for and there are plenty more.If you are an Apple head like me. There are plenty of applications in the Apple APPstore for finding and creating social stories. I used PowerPoint to create AwesomeA’s Kindergarten Classroom social stories and have used Microsoft WORD in the past. It’s simple and I customized the pictures and wording the exact way I wanted. After the social story was made I read it AwesomeA daily and/or showed him the powerpoint presentation.
I really feel that using a social story helped prepare him for his first day of Kindergarten if he was going to be ok anyway without the social story using it didn’t hurt. I don’t believe that social stories are just for children with special needs, they are really beneficial to kids of all ages and developmental levels. I know plenty of parents who have read their kids potty training books throughout the potty training process. It is a similar concept and I’m a big fan and user of social stories.
*More on AwesomeA’s First Day of 5-K to come.
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