REAL STORIES FROM REAL PARENTS

by Penny

We live, breath and die by social stories. The school uses them all the time, especially when something new comes up, and the first time he can't accept the change, then a social story is created. Before T. use to have one on any  changes, so I guess we have progressed by trying it first. At home we use more of a schedule social story. First this  happens, then this, etc. We put in steps - if you don't listen here are the ramifications. It's all in writing so T. understands.

Teaching Social Skills; An example (sleepovers):

What we did was first have one of the kids, "A", come over on a play date two weeks before the 'actual sleepover'.  This taught me that T. needs lots of help in socialization skills. We were lucky in that the kids that came over have been with T. since first grade so they 'understand' his idiosyncrasies. I  made sure there was lots to do, Playstation, computer and  Nintendo, TV. to watch and movies. The sleepover itself involved two boys, "A" and "D", who came on a Friday night and started at 6:30 with pizza, the kids themselves played themselves out by 10:00 and then, because of other things were gone by 10:30 in the morning. Taylor has a TV. and VCR  in his room, so they watched TV. & movies late (no violence) and then got up early to watch Saturday morning cartoons.  We did a lot of sharing talks, and Danny helped smooth the rough parts of Alex and Taylor from the first play date. D. is  also one of 3 kids, whereas A. is an only child who's parents just finished a messy divorce. So A. also does not like to  share.

D., though, helped even everything out. I probably won't do another one for awhile, but it was a great experience.  I also found out that it was the first sleepover for all three of the kids. 

So in actuality it was a lot like any other 8 yr old's sleepover.

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July 4, 2002