Autistic children and adults have deficits in social cognition, which means they lack the ability to think in terms that are appropriate where social interactions are necessary. 

This is explained using the “theory of mind” or the ability to mind read. A normally developing child will have the ability to read facial expression and body language and will make the assumption as to what another person is thinking or feeling. With autism this ability is missing.

This can however be addressed using something called “social skills stories”. The social skills story gives the autistic child a means to understand the thoughts feelings and actions of others in a positive clear structured set of instructions and information.

The social skills stories give the autistic child a means of understanding situations and give coping strategies for dealing with often stressful and confusing situations and or tasks.

The social skills story will present appropriate behavior and actions and what the child with autism may expect from others 

Social stories for the autism classroom; may include stories such as, shared reading, waiting your turn to speak, asking questions, turn taking, interaction lessons such as gym, as well as stories such as using the bathroom, recess and so on… 

There are four main types of sentences in autism social skills stories these are descriptive, directive, perspective and control sentences.

The descriptive sentence is used to describe what people do in a particular situation and to describe the social setting or situation. An example of a descriptive sentence would be:

At the end of literacy, the children pack away their books. 

The directive sentence is used to direct the child to the appropriate response or behavior. These sentences will give accurate responses to the required behavior. An example of a directive sentence would be:

I can walk to the bathroom to wash my hands I am getting ready for lunch.

The perspective sentence describes how others see the situation, and how they likely behave. This sentence is used to show the child with autism how the other children will be thinking. An example of this sentence would be:

The children like it when I line up quietly this makes them happy.

The control sentence is used to help the child with autism to remember the social skills story’s purpose to re establish the structure of the story. An example of this sentence would be:

It is a good idea for me to remember that the whistle means it is the end of recess.

 he autism social stories for the autism classroom can be implemented in various ways. The teacher may want to read the social skills story with the autistic student twice previous to the autistic student taking it to read on their own to help with the situation the story is focusing on.

For autistic students who do not read the autistic educator will want to read the story to the autistic student at the appropriate times.

Whichever means is used to implement the autism social skills stories it is important to remember that the story may be tweaked if necessary. Plus it is ok to use multiple stories autistic children respond well to social skills stories and they have been found to help teach vital social skills in the autism classroom.

You may download immediately social skills stories for the autism classroom from:

 www.autismsocialstories.com/school