| Unlike their typically developing peers autistic children | | | | communication difficulties. |
| find social interactions difficult. This is due to social skills | | | | Social skills stories follow a set pattern of sentence |
| deficits which are common to autism. | | | | type and use visual images to show in detail a skill or |
| An autistic child will always have social skills deficits but | | | | situation the autistic child may be struggling to |
| the degree or severity of their individual social skills | | | | understand. So for example sharing, typically |
| deficits will depend largely on the individual autistic child | | | | developing children may not like the idea of sharing, but |
| and where on the autism spectrum they are. | | | | will understand why they need to share and the |
| The social skills deficits common to autism are | | | | consequence of not sharing. |
| difficulties with social interactions, communication | | | | But an autistic chills will not necessarily understand why |
| deficits and deficits with imagination skills. | | | | they need to share or indeed care to know why, the |
| It is their deficits with social interaction skills that can | | | | consequence will be of little or no importance to them |
| make an autistic child appear aloof and disinterested, | | | | either. Therefore when deciding how to teach a skill |
| which can hinder making and maintaining friends. | | | | like sharing it is a good idea to use supports that are |
| Having poor communication skills and a lack of | | | | designed to help a child with autism grasp a skill. |
| imagination can mean the autistic child may | | | | So when looking at example at how can a social skills |
| misunderstand pretend play, be unable to take turns | | | | story teach an autistic child to be a good friend, the |
| and share. | | | | answer is simple easily….The social story will answer |
| So how can a social skills story teach an autistic child | | | | the "wh" questions: who, where, why, when and what, |
| to be a good friend? | | | | as well as give the child with autism an insight into the |
| Social stories were developed originally as an aid to | | | | thoughts and feelings of others. The social skills story |
| help autistic children communicate. Today they are | | | | acts as a role model, visually showing the autistic |
| largely used as a means of teaching social interaction | | | | youngster how to deal with the skill or situation |
| skills as well as imagination skills and to address | | | | appropriately. |