Social Stories

I went to another seminar. This one had some more information I am working on using with RAD. It is a little more complicated. It is called Social Stories. Here are some links. http://www.vanderbilt.edu/csefel/scriptedstories/tips.html http://www.thegraycenter.org/ http://www.autism.org/stories.html If what I am saying is not clear or you want more information check those sites out. I'm going to try to condense a lot of information into a small space so if you have questions please ask.

These stories a written on computer paper. The child creates the story. Bear is dictating and I am writing as writing is difficult for him and I really want to focus on what the story says, not developing his writing skills with this. He loves art and is really pretty good at it so we are writing on the bottom half of the page and he is drawing on the top half. You then slide the paper into presentation sleeves and use rings to hold it together. It should be read every day to help the child cope with the issue and what needs to happen. After you see advancement you can start reading it less but it could take awhile. I am hoping doing this and reading it every day will help move Bear through that first step of grieving.

There are 4 types of sentences used:

Descriptive sentences: Just describe the situation.
Ex: When I was born my birth mom used drugs.

Perspective sentences: Help describe the internal status of the person involved, their thoughts, feelings, or moods. Ex: I felt very sad about leaving my birth home.

Directive sentences: Individuals statements of a desired response states in a positive manner
Ex: When I show respect for others they enjoy being around me and I get to do more things with them.

Control sentences: Strategies to facilitate memory and use their correct response Ex: When I become really angry I will stop and remember I am safe. Then I will ask mom for a hug.

There will be 3-5 descriptive and perspective sentences for every directive sentence. When they are talking about their past, talking about how it effects them now could be used for the control and directive sentences.

I hope this is all clearer than mud! We have done page 1 of Bears book and plan on working on it all week. I'd like to have it done so we can start reading it every day. Please continue to share your ideas. If you have some on your blog that you would like to share let me know and I'll include a link to your blog in a post. We can encourage each other! : )

I would like to add that I am going over this and tweaking it with our attachment therapist tomorrow. Our objective is too help a child who is stuck in the past to move on. The story needs to show them how to do this. Make them realize that they can and what thoughts they should have in order to do this. Hopefully reading how and being told they can over and over will build their confidence in their ability to do a very hard thing. Attach to this mom!