Sunshine and Superheros: Social Stories part 3

Lately I’ve been talking a lot about the benefits of Social Stories. That fact was made abundantly clear to me this past week as I traveled to Florida with my daughter, who is on the autism spectrum. Even though she is 18 years old and pretty high functioning it took some prep work to make this trip run smoothly. In fact, the preparation all started about 10 years ago when she took her first flight.  For that experience we created a story, in book form, so she would know what to expect as far as noises and crowds (which are a couple of her triggers), as well as how I would expect her to behave. We read that story for the 2 weeks prior to our trip, and I can honestly say that we had really good results.  She stayed calm and was even excited about the adventure. For each subsequent trip I would start talking to her about the travels a month or two ahead of time, each time reminding her what it is like to be in super-crowded places like airports or train stations. If she seemed at all anxious we would pull out the original social story that we wrote and review, which would often help answer any new concerns she had. By the time she reached her mid-teens we were able to ditch the story in book form, but we still verbally review travel expectations at least a week before we leave for an overnight event. Giving her that week to process what we will be doing gives her a chance to discuss her anxiety, find answers to any questions she may have about the destination, and make decisions about what she will need to bring with to make the trip as stress free as possible for herself. It also gives us a chance to decide ahead of time what our plan of action will be when either of us is feeling overwhelmed or over-stimulated. Let me tell you, that last part has been the pivotal ingredient to successful vacationing for our family. And it started in our original social story. She was given clear choices, written out, so she would know it is ok to say she needs a break. 

The social story format has been a real lifesaver for us and countless other families. If you want to learn more about Carol Gray and her outline for writing a story I highly recommend that you visit her new website at www.carolgraysocialstories.com (it might still be under construction so keep checking back!).