Social interaction problems are the core obstacles of autism spectrum disorders, and autism rehabilitation training should focus on social improvement.
This article will introduce how to use social stories to teach children the rules of social interaction.
What is a social story
It is an important tool for using concise and clear stories to describe everyday social situations and thus guide children to appropriate social behaviors.
Social stories originated in the early 1990s, mainly based on psychological theory, the social behaviors that autistic children must learn, with the children's life situations, are written into stories, and through the story learning to obtain important clues from the situation and show appropriate social behaviors, emphasizing the promotion of children's social ability development by improving their understanding of social situations and social rules.
How social stories can be used rationally in autism intervention training
Write a social story
Social storytelling is the first step in using social storytelling to intervene in autistic children, and the source of social storytelling is mainly the events that occur in the daily life of autistic children.
The performance of autistic children in these daily events is an important basis for parents to write social stories.
Every child with autism has a different social performance, and parents should write social stories based on their specific symptoms.
For example, some children with autism have difficulty following social rules, and some have serious barriers to communication with others.
Parents need to write and design different stories for the different needs of different autistic children, and carry out individual intervention training for them.
Read the social story
Assisting children with autism in reading social stories is also essential, and after the social stories are written, parents can use them to pile up autistic children for intervention.
The main tasks of the intervention phase include presenting the child with autism, explaining social stories, demonstrating and practicing correct behavior or language.
For children with autism at different levels of cognition, the strategies guided at this stage are also different.
For example, for autistic children with independent reading ability and a relatively large amount of literacy, parents can use words and illustrations to assist them in reading social stories.
On the contrary, for autistic children without literacy and language proficiency, multimedia PPT and video presentations may be more suitable for assisting them in reading social stories.
Practice social storytelling
After assisting autistic children with social stories in the form of pictures, texts, PPT and video demonstrations, parents can assist autistic children with social story simulation exercises, that is, practice social skills in simulated real-world situations to reinforce targeted behaviors.
Similarly, for autistic children with better abilities in all aspects, parents can choose to create a simulated teaching scene according to the needs of social story content, so that they can learn and practice in the simulated scene, so as to achieve the role of consolidating social skills and reducing their communication psychological barriers.
For autistic children with low abilities, it is not so easy to assist them in completing the practice of social stories, and parents need to guide them appropriately when practicing in real situations.
Let's take an example
Kang Kang, 5 years old, has strong language comprehension and expression skills, but has a poor temper and weak ability to cooperate with people.
When asked to do something, if he was unwilling to do it, he would shout loudly and sit on the ground, determined not to come.
In the process of class, when you want to see your favorite mobile phone or picture, you will directly take it;
When doing homework, the mouth will keep talking, and it is difficult to finish a class quietly;
He knows a lot of Chinese characters and likes mobile phones, subways, and other means of transportation.
In response to his situation, in his teaching, the teacher added a lot of visual elements on the one hand, and at the same time introduced social stories.
"Painting Lesson"
I had drawing classes every day, sometimes I had lessons with my teachers, sometimes I had lessons with my mother.
I have to behave well in class so that my mother will be happy and the teacher will like me.
When I was in class, I heard my teacher or my mother call me to class, and I had to go right over.
During class, I would sit quietly in my chair and keep my mouth shut and be quiet.
When I'm in class, I have to look at the books carefully and draw carefully.
After doing my homework, I can go and listen to music on my phone or watch the subway.
This social story is meant to teach children what to do after hearing about class.
Take your child to read a short story before class and answer questions based on the short story.
Then, in the course of class, if the child is talking non-stop, use pictures with a small story to remind the child what to do.
The process of prompting can be not to speak, but to point to remind the child to close the mouth.
Then continue the class, the child may deliberately speak loudly, can be ignored, after a while the child is quiet, can draw quietly.
In the process of Kang Kang's painting, the teacher reminded him two or three times. Reward him when he's done, and he can choose what he wants to do.
This is the first social story written by the teacher to Kang Kang, and after several consecutive uses, the time for children to quietly attend classes is increasing.
But it still takes time to preserve the story and let the child develop a habit.
Social stories don't have to be complicated, you can get to the point.
The use of different social stories to intervene in training children with autism can not only improve their social communication skills, prompt them to better understand their environment, but also have a great effect on better interaction with their peers in the environment.
Parents can try it.
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