Social Stories with Non-verbal Students with Autism

Social Stories, developed so cleverly by Carol Gray, are useful not only for students who are verbal, but also can be helpful for non-verbal students. Obviously, they need to be adapted, perhaps as pictures but also could be with written words if the student is able to read. We should never underestimate the ability of people with autism to understand regardless of ability to speak and/or read.

As we focus on our expectations in a social situation when trying to teach the student, we must recognize the goal is to increase the social awareness of the individual. First the student must know exactly what is happening. If the student has accurate and specific social information, we can then help them process that information and hopefully influence a change in their behavior. We would do this through a visual presentation of the situation and what we expect. Of course, we very likely will have to be explicit and not make assumptions about what the student has observed (and we know that social observations by our students are VERY limited). But probably most important is that we don't make the assumption that because the student is not verbal or minimally verbal, we can't use a modified form of Social Stories.

Information is important to all of us - the who, what, why and how of our social interactions is critical to move successfully throughout our days. It works best to take the time to explain what is going on and what our expectations are of the student's behavior.

We are very fortunate to have Carol Gray as our keynote speaker at our annual conference on Saturday, September 22. She is an excellent and engaging speaker and I know will provide much needed information for teachers, speech therapists and parents. Check out our website www.morgancenter.org for more information.