Social Story™ examples: kids with autism

About Social Stories™

Social Stories™ are used to teach children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) about appropriate social behaviour in specific settings, like the supermarket, the doctor’s surgery, the playground and so on. YOu can create a Social Story™ for almost any social situation, skill or concept.

Here’s a Social Story™ on pretend examples, like ‘I have four apples. If I eat two, how many are left?’.

Children with ASD can find pretending particularly difficult. Some children with ASD take pretend examples literally. A child who interprets things literally might think to himself, ‘But I didn’t have four apples, and I wouldn’t have eaten them because I don’t like apples’. So taking things literally can make schoolwork difficult.

The Social Story™ below could help in this situation. This Social Story™ has been developed and written by a trained Social Story™ therapist.

For more information, you can read our guide to Social Stories™.

Social Story™: pretend examples in schoolwork

Sometimes, I might have a maths story problem. To do a story problem, I have to pretend. Pretend means it might not be true for what I usually say or do. Pretending means using my brain to imagine what I would do to solve the problem.

This might mean I pretend to like foods that I don’t like in real life. Or I pretend to like things or activities that I don’t like. The good news about pretending is that I don’t have to really like to eat those foods, or really like those things or activities. I will try to pretend enough so that I can complete my schoolwork.

I will try to tell myself that to complete my schoolwork, I only have to pretend for a short amount of time.

Social Stories™ are usually written in the first person – for example, ‘I have an area around my body’. They can also be written in the third person – for example, ‘Andy has an area around his body’.