I’ll start by saying that Social Stories are not just for children with Autism. I have used them here and there for mostly younger children, including my own son, but most did not have a developmental disability. Most students that I have made social stories for have been kiddos that have difficulty with emotional regulation and/or aggression.
I recently made two social story coloring books for two different students. Making the stories are not too time consuming to make, as long as you have the main format ready to go. The format is, an introduction, identify the issue, give some practical solutions or strategies, and identify a positive emotion that the student and others will feel if he or she is able to use the strategies.
I made them with some fill-in the blank areas for their name, grade, school, and their teacher’s name because it helps make the story more personalized, so that the child can better identify with the lesson from the story and take ownership of their behavior. I also made them coloring books. This was for two reasons. The first was that if I used color pictures, I would only be able to print in black and white with my school’s printer anyways, and that wouldn’t look too nice. The other is to help give them more ownership of the story/book, so that they will want to read it or have it read to them more often. It is “their” book.
I’ve attached one of my books for a free download. It is for students with poor self-control and anger management. My other social story is available on my TpT site.
It is for students who are having difficulty transitioning back to school from being home with parents during COVID. I make it for a very challenging TK-er. I’m talking shoes being thrown at me and classwork being ripped off of the walls the first few weeks of school. I won’t take all of the credit with my social story, but with a combination of strategies and parent guidance, he was able to adjust to coming to school day with his daily ritual of morning meltdowns. It was a little hairy though those first few weeks!