My good friend Carol Gray is known all over the world for her work onSocial StoriesTM for autistic children, youngsters and adults (for adults, they are also known as Social Articles).
There is a link between the concept of context blindness and Social StoriesTM. People on the autism spectrum have difficulties using context spontaneously to make smart guesses about what is happening and how they best respond to the world. Therefore, helping them to understand situations is key to helping them to understand and navigate a world full of uncertainty. I have named this “pushing the context button“. And this is exactly what Social StoriesTM do. They explain all kind of situations and contexts in a clear and especially empowering way. Social StoriesTM can take away the stress caused by not understanding the world the way neurotypicals do and they are therefore in my humble opinion a very powerful tool for enhancing the emotional well-being of children and young people with autism.
And now Carol has made a Social StoryTM for parents and professionals who live and/or work with an autistic individual. As with all of the stories Carol wrote for autistic people, this one is also informative, concrete, positive and empowering. It describes what autistic people appreciate in their parents / teachers / professionals. Two qualities that Carol mentions are qualities that I have always seen as pivotal in working with autistic people: curiosity and humour.
It is with pleasure that I share Carol’s Social StoryTM for the Rest of Us.
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If you want to learn more about Social StoriesTM, see Carol’s Club: https://carolgraysocialstories.com/carols-club/
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