Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Social Stories



               Watching the videos and reading the articles was my first interaction with social stories. I must say that I am very impressed with the idea and its applicable use in the classroom. As Cori More says in the article Digital Stories Targeting Social Skills for Children With Disabilities: Multidimensional Learning, "Children develop with different strengths and weaknesses, but many children with disabilities experience deficits in social areas." The point of social stories is to address these deficits with the children and help them overcome barriers. Social stories have the potential to teach students certain tasks and appropriate actions and reactions in different situations. They do not have to take time away from learning as they are short and to the point.
                Learning about the different aspects of social stories and the way sentences are designed was beneficial to not only creating my own story, but understanding the language that is used in stories created by others. It's important to use language that the student understands and the entire story should be written from their perspective. When making a story you should consult and allow the student your addressing to work alongside you. When using effects you don't want anything distracting the student away from the essence of the story itself. When you work alongside a child you can easily see what things work and don't work. 
                The behavior that you choose to address in the story is of great importance. As the healing waters website says "The idea is that the child rehearses the story ahead of time, with an adult. Then, when the situation actually happens, the child can use the story to help guide his or her behavior." It's important to begin with the end in mind. Knowing what behavior you are targeting and why you believe it's important for the child to overcome it will give you motivation to create a useful story and potentially reach success.
                I came up with the idea for my social story from my own experiences and observations at the daycare I work at and the school I observe in. Waiting in lines, especially for non interesting tasks like washing your hands can be a huge issue. The students I had in mind when creating this social video was a student with autism. He struggled with waiting in line, because he felt that he would get behind or miss out on tasks. His feelings of anxiousness causes him to act out in line and become very irritable. This behavior would often lead to many issues with classmates and regaining focus when it was time to get to work. The use of the social video shows this student the appropriate behavior to display in line and assures him that he will not be missing out on anything. Enjoy!   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUley_pF1KM

4 comments:

  1. Meghan,
    I loved your idea for the story, it was something different and I never really thought of it. Great Idea! Waiting in line is very difficult for children especially those with disabilities and hand washing is a must so this social story would be very helpful for students. I really liked how you used a variety of pictures real life pictures and some cartoons. The variety made it interesting I was excited to see what pictures were going to pop up next. I also liked your voice you were very clear and a little animated as well as easy to understand! Good Job!

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  2. Hey Meghan,
    Great job with your social story!! I have similar experiences as I too work with children at an afterschool program. The children's anxiousness about missing something and having to wait always seems to cause problems so this social story is an awesome tool to use! I was in the same boat as you seeing the articles and videos as my first exposure to social stories. I can now see how effective and awesome they can be for so many different kinds of indiviuals and disabilities! I think you did a great job of picking out key quotes from the articles we read, really stressing the importance of social stories and why they aide individuals with disabilities so well. Your video was adorable! Your choice of pictures were great and your voice fits in so well!
    Great job!!

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  3. Megan, like everyone else, I really like the topic you picked for your social story. I think it's exactly the kind of routine part of the day that we tend to assume won't be any problems but that can cause anxiety - or plain old boredom - in some students. I liked the little bits of music at the beginning and the end, but I also liked that you dropped the music during the actual story. I didn't think about putting music in around what I was saying.

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  4. I liked your video and story. The music was a nice touch. I think it was clear and concise and targeted an important skill.

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