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For students who struggle in social situations, modeling typical social behavior is an important support for moving forward. Social stories help model this behavior and set expectations, especially when students may face new environments with different people.
Discover how social stories can benefit everyone in your classroom, from autistic students in special education classes to mainstream students who need help with emotional regulation and behavior. You’ll also find tips from TPT Teacher-Authors on how to implement social stories in your own classroom, as well as how to write your own!
What is a social story?
A social story is a narrative that shows characters going through social routines and expectations. Created by educator Carol Gray for autistic students, social stories for kids and teens include pictures to model social interactions for students before they encounter new situations.
For example, a fire drill social story would use images and short words to show a character experiencing the sounds, sights, and rules of a fire drill. Teachers would use this social story before an upcoming fire drill to acclimate their students to what’s coming and to review the story after the drill to reiterate the social expectations.
Common types of social stories
Social stories can address any behavior or social situation you’d like to teach your students more about. Popular topics in social stories may include:
- Daily routines (bathing, brushing teeth, going to bed)
- Conversations (meeting new people, eye contact, common greetings)
- Classroom behaviors (interrupting, staying in your seat, keeping hands to yourself)
- Emotional regulation (calming down, expressing your feelings, handling stress)
- Life changes (transitions, going to a new school, puberty)
- Peer relationships (making friends, accepting boundaries, empathy)
The best social stories are specific, detailed, and solution-focused. You may find that reviewing a social story throughout the year may be necessary for students to grasp the concepts, along with discussions about what they’ve experienced.
Benefits of Social Stories
Studies show that social stories have multiple benefits for autistic students, and they can reduce disruptive behaviors and increase desired behaviors. Social stories for kids break down the steps of social interactions, allowing them to predict others’ reactions and the consequences of their behavior. They also describe nonverbal and hidden social cues that autistic students may miss.
But no matter your classroom setup and composition, social stories can benefit your students. They promote inclusion in the classroom by modeling characters who struggle with social situations, clarifying your classroom rules and expectations, and improving peer relationships by encouraging empathy and boundaries — which can help every student.
Social Story Resources for the Classroom
The best social stories are slow-paced and clearly illustrated, allowing students to make connections between the characters’ feelings and their own.
Use social stories to work through school situations
With multiple settings, transitions, and sensory output, school can be a difficult place for many students. Bring these social story resources into your curriculum during the early weeks of school to guide students on how to act and what to expect during the noisiest parts of the school day.
Teacher Tip
I would recommend following up the social story with a dice game or some discussion cards so the student can verbally process the story. They can self-reflect while answering questions like “What would you do in this situation?” and “What advice would you give to the character?”
-Rachel from Bright Futures Counseling
Lunch Room Expectations Social Story Adapted Book for Autism Cafeteria Rules
By Adapted by Kimmie D
Grades: PreK-2nd
Subjects: Classroom Community, Social Emotional Learning, Speaking & Listening
What can kids expect to see and hear in the cafeteria? Use a social story adapted book to help autistic students, mainstream students, and anyone who could use some guidance on the rules and sensory input of the school cafeteria.
Social Story Riding the Bus
By Brooke Reagan
Subject: School Counseling
Riding the bus can be overwhelming for anyone, especially students with special needs. Help students of any age navigate appropriate behavior and expectations when riding the bus with illustrated social stories. Printable and digital versions of the resource provide colorful visuals for each rule, including getting on and off the bus, keeping hands to yourself, and using kind and soft voices.
Personal Space invader boundaries Social Story Activity Autism
By Badger State Speechy
Grades: 1st-6th
Subjects: School Counseling, Speaking & Listening
Standard: CCSS CCRA.SL.2
Aligned to CCSS for speaking and listening, this personal space social story helps autistic students and students with social difficulties navigate keeping space with their peers. Students identify what their hands and feet are for, social rules, and nonverbal communication with engaging graphics that match teaching stories for different grade levels.
Handle classroom behavior with social stories
Ideally, your classroom should be a safe space for your students — and that includes their peers, too. Use these social stories to teach and remind students to respect others in tangible, easy-to-understand modeled language.
Teacher Tip
Use puppets to role-play the concepts after reading a social story. This moves it from passive to active learning. Puppets lower defensiveness.
-Rachel from Bright Futures Counseling
Hands to Myself – A Social Story Unit with 25 Activities, Visuals and Vocabulary
By NoodleNook
Subject: Character Education
Get ahead of classroom conflicts with a resource on keeping your hands to yourself. Students complete comprehension activities, clip cards, and worksheets using support visuals in both black-and-white and color versions.
Swearing Social Story | Social Stories | Positive Language Social Story
By Allie Szczecinski with Miss Behavior
Grades: PreK-3rd
Subject: School Counseling
Do your students struggle with swearing and inappropriate language in class? Use a social script focused on positive language to guide elementary students away from swearing. It includes mini-book social scripts with visual supports that use both the words “swearing” and “cussing” to meet students where they are.
Add emotional regulation social stories to your SEL lessons
Many autistic students struggle with emotional regulation, especially in new social situations or moments with extra sensory stimulation. These teaching tools guide students of all ages to work through their feelings with social stories on emotional moments throughout their day.
Teacher Tip
For many learners — especially those with autism or social communication challenges — acting out the social story bridges the gap between “knowing what to do” and actually doing it in the moment.
-Mickelle from I LUV Special Ed
Calm Down Strategies: Social Stories & Visuals for Self-Regulation & Behavior
By Autism Classroom Resource-Christine Reeve
Grades: K-10th
Subject: Social Emotional Learning
This kit includes four social stories on others’ perspectives and problematic situations, all in the format of an idea and a picture on each page for students to match the narratives with the images.
Social Skills Scripts and Narratives – Editable Stories for Middle & High School
By Pathway 2 Success
Grades: 6th-9th
Subjects: School Counseling, Social Emotional Learning
Guide students through various social situations with scripts and narratives. Beneficial for middle and high schoolers working on building their social skills, the editable resource includes 20 social stories on transitioning, waiting, managing emotions, homework, and more.
How to Create Your Own Social Stories
If you need a social story that’s more specific to your classroom, you can create it yourself! All you need is a social situation, steps for moving through that situation, and a little artistic talent (or a good digital illustration program).
- Identify the audience of your story. Is this for autistic students, kids with other developmental considerations, or mainstream students?
- Find the goal of the story, which matches the social lesson you’re trying to teach your students.
- Establish a setting for your social story, preferably one that students know they are about to encounter.
- Break down the social navigation steps for the situation. Put one sentence on each page (or quarter of the page).
- Create the images, either by drawing them yourself or using a digital art program. You can also use clipart as long as it clearly shows each character’s behavior.
If you’re teaching older students or kids with lower support needs, consider having them create their own social stories based on a time they had to use social skills. Then they can share their stories to help their peers!
Teacher Tip
Don’t rely on the story alone. Pair it with modeling, visuals, and repeated practice so the skill becomes usable in the moment.
-Shelly from Shelly Swift BCBA
Social stories guide and support students
Social stories work best when students (and teachers) know how to use them. Once you’ve worked through a few social stories with your class, expand your repertoire with more social story resources for different needs and grade levels, and see how well your students’ SEL and social skills develop. You can also augment your curriculum with more special education resources that address these important steps, empowering your students to feel comfortable and competent in new situations.