Creating a social story can seem like a daunting task.
What is the subject of a good story for kids?
How should it be worded? What all goes into a story?
Here you will find the answers to all these questions and learn how to write a story that will positively impact the students you work with.
These 5 easy steps will help you to be a great social story creator.
(Spoiler alert – I’ll even be offering you a free social story just in case you need a quick start or a great free printable social story template to follow – or click here to go there now!)
5 Steps to Write a Social Story
1. Subject
Come up with the subject of your story.
This can be something that is either being foreshadowed (such as a fire drill story) or an area where unwanted behaviors (like lying, troubles at recess, or struggles with inappropriate touch) are being seen.
For an example, check out this behavior social story about swearing.
I had a first grade student who would use inappropriate language throughout the day. His teacher became frustrated when she had to refocus the class because students would either giggle or tattle on the student when they swore to get everyone off track. It happened so many times each and every day. So I created a social story for swearing to help the student better understand.
This stop swearing social story helped this student to understand that swearing is not an okay thing to do.
2. Brainstorm
Think about what the replacement behavior would be along with any ‘rules’ that need to be followed. If you are wanting a student to stop a certain behavior, you need to give them a behavior to do instead.
Using a story to reinforce what this replacement behavior is can be super helpful when the student needs the information given both auditory and visually in a very simple, straightforward format.
For example, if you want to write a social story for hitting, the replacement behavior might be using words instead of fists or taking a break to do some heavy work.
If the story needs to contain any guidelines that need to be followed. This might be a social story about inappropriate touch and needing to make sure appropriate touch is taking place. So make sure you have an idea of what these specific things are so you can incorporate them.
Rules should be written in a very factual way that isn’t threatening sounding to the student. An example would be instead of saying ‘you shouldn’t touch people,’ it could read ‘Sometimes I want to touch my friends. When I do this, I need to make sure that my touch is a: handshake, high five, pat on the back.’
3. Introduction & conclusion pages
Just like any good piece of writing, make sure you have an introduction and conclusion to your story.
This gives students a preview and a bit of background knowledge of what they are going to be reading about. The conclusion is a nice way to wrap everything up so there is a definite stop in the story.
Here is an example of this winter play social story. The introduction page talks about how recess looks different when there is snow on the ground. The concussion page gives an uplifting statement on how the student can have fun when they follow the rules and play the activities that were mentioned in the book.
These pages really help to tie the whole story together.
4. Write the text – keep it simple, use factual statements as well as 1st person perspective, and keep it positive.
These tips are *gold* when it comes to writing the actual text of the story.
Students need something short and to the point. Additionally, using simple language will make the best story for preschoolers or a child with autism or a student who needs reteaching of a certain skill.
Keeping it positive helps the child understand that it is not a negative thing, it is just a rule or social norm that should be followed.
Here is an example of using a positive tone in this social story on stealing.
5. Add clipart or graphics
Images can really help a story come to life for students.
They can also help students who are highly visual learners who pick up more information from pictures than words.
In the social stories I create, I love to use black/white clipart. This allows students to color in the story to make it uniquely their own. Doing this gives them a sense of ownership over the story too.
Check out this social story for stealing. The clip art I used has a black outline so students can personalize the characters and really make it their own social story on stealing.
Bonus step: Try going digital
Recently I began to upload the different pages of my social stories to be used in Google Slides. While this sounds a bit intense, it is actually pretty easy to do and just takes a little time.
First, I screenshot each page of my story (if you handwrite yours, just take a photo of each page). Then I upload each image onto a different slide by adding it as the background image on each (this way students can’t accidentally move/delete text or images).
Another feature I love using is recording myself reading each page and inserting it as audio. This helps my students who are struggling readers to not have to worry about sounding out unknown words. Pro tip: students can’t play a sound when Google Slides is in ‘present’ mode so make sure to keep it in the original working format while students view it.
Since my school is 1-to-1 with iPads, it is easy to just make a copy and assign it to the student who needs some re-teaching on the subject matter.
The students love it because it is kind of like a video social story. You can see this asking for help social story on an iPad featuring the speaker box in the upper left corner.
Now it’s your turn to be a social story maker!
Good luck as you create a social story of your own.
And if you want one that is done for you, check out these great ones (all mentioned in this post) by clicking on any of the pictures above. Here’s a list of them below too. 🙂
They are all as easy as print, cut in half, staple in the corner, and go! So easy and saving you so much time.
Social Story for Inappropriate-Touch
Social Story on Following Directions – FREEBIE
Looking for a free social story?
Check out this freebie!
This social story on following directions includes 8 pages (pages are half of a regular size piece of paper).
There are 2 versions, colored and black & white – which is built like a coloring book so students can color in the images taking even more ownership for their story.
In addition to the free social story printables, the colored version of this following directions social story is also made into a digital version using Google Slides. The pages even have the accompanying audio. So amazing for struggling readers.
You could also use this for a social story template to make sure your own has all the right components.
I hope you enjoy this free printable social story following directions that has a digital component as well.
Need more help to figure out tricky student behavior?
Social stories are a great way to help change student behavior. But if you need more help with tricky student behavior, check out these resources:
An FBA can really help you tease out student behavior. This post is all about what is a functional behavioral assessment and gives many great tips on how to do one.
Behavior intervention plans (BIPs) are amazing for getting everyone on the same page. Check out this post to find out what is behavior intervention plan and how to write one.
Behavior contracts are a great way to re-shape behavior (and they are the perfect pairing with social stories). Check out this blog post on behavior contract basics and this one for how to write a behavioral contract.
And don’t forget to grab this freebie 5 step process to writing a great behavior plan. This will walk you through the process of writing a great plan. And there are a few behavior data collection forms included too. So much goodness here!
Happy Teaching!
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