AS opinions needed re social stories

Post Reply New Topic

Hi, I'm the mother of an 8 yr old AS boy. At school they are using social stories to teach him various behaviours. He has a special interest in the game of netball, and I am wondering if it would work to incorporate this special interest into the stories 1) to make them interesting for him; 2) so that the social stories are set in a framework that he already understands.
For example, there is a rule in netball about needing to keep 3 feet away from the player with the ball. We could use this rule to explain about not intruding into other people's personal space. etc. etc. We could use the idea of not talking back to the referee when they make a decision, to teach about how to treat teachers respectfully etc. etc.
What I'd like to know is whether this would work? Or would it be too complicated for him to see the transference between the rules of netball and social/school rules? Would it be better just to stick with teaching social/school rules on their own? Thanks in advance

Maybe it would be good if the boy could apply a concept like personal space to a tangible situation like net-ball. BTW, is net-ball anything like hockey?

Good luck!

Sounds like a good idea to me.

It's a good idea. He can use concepts he understands to understand concepts he doesn't understand.

well trying wont pay

Yes, using netball with the social stories would usually be a good idea, as you need to find a special interest to link to -- the special interest will often be the "motivating" factor in your son's interest in the social stories, and it may help him to internalize the social stories more completely. Otherwise, the social stories are just abstract things that don't apply to him.

Kris

Thanks everyone - nice to know I could be on the right track with this. I was wanting some feedback on it before I discuss it with his teachers.

Netball is similar to basketball, but you don't have backboards behind the goals, can only pass the ball, and have to play in a specific area of the court. It is popular in UK, NZ & Australia - predominantly a female sport, but more men are starting to play competition.
My son plays hockey too and is quite good at it - doesn't seem to have too many gross motor skills problems, so that is helpful for him.

Gee, Frankly, at least as far back as I can remember, I wanted people to stay FARTHER away from me! Your idea of equating normal relations with a favorite game is a good one though.

I WISH I found these people that minded people being so close. It seems like others want to be close to ME! THAT causes most of my social strife.

Working in the school system, I often use special interests to link social stories to real life. It's good to use experiences with various practices afterwards, as well. Such as an interaction with other classmates (whether they went well or not) and use that to practice other ways to play out the situations. This has always worked well with my son.

Social stories are an excellent way to bring autistic children into more socially accepting behaviour. Several of you have heard me talk about my situation cards that I keep on file in my brain. I have a situation with a picture in my brain of that situation. Then I have several cards behind that one with possible outcomes. I pick the one that best fits. That card has cards with several outcomes behind it....etc.

Social stories are a way of building this library of situation cards in our brains. It helps to practice these things because the practice helps to build more cards. The more cards that I have in my library, the more normally I can behave in situations without incident. Having more cards in my library also cuts down on my reaction times to situations. Outside of looking for a card. Usually when I have that hang time in reaction is because I don't have a card for the situation that's occured and I end up looking for another card that looks kind of the same so that I can adapt it.

geez, i wish someone had thought of something like this to help me way back when... i had to learn social norms on my own by way of being made fun of at day-care <_<;;

If he does analogies at all, if he's ever gotten the point of Aesop's fables or a parable, then it'll be perfect. It depends on his style. I would've gotten it because I make associations like that all the time, more than most people. But if you're very literal and linear, it might be better to use something like, "There are rules for netball; there are also rules for playtime"... And then warn him that people break the rules all the time, because otherwise the poor kid is going to see a bunch of kids being rude and hate the rules being broken. It's better if other people breaking social rules doesn't come as a surprise. Not that it isn't unpleasant, mind you.

Social stories work decently for the basics. I should warn you that there will come a point when the social situations get too nuanced to use social stories, because there will be more than one simple narrative--many possibilities, branching off like a gigantic flowchart. At that point you will have to move to abstract rules.