Social stories can be a helpful tool for parents to use to help their children understand different aspects of everyday life. These stories help children understand interpersonal communications and teach them how to interact in an appropriate manner. These books can talk about what is happening in your child’s daily lives and what they are going through. It can help them understand and navigate different situations.
At Yellow Brick Road Early Childhood Development Center, we believe that social stories can help your child better deal with certain issues and understand different things happening in their lives. Social stories can put different events into perspective and allow your child to get a better understanding of certain things.
We wanted to discuss social stories a little bit more and allow parents to understand that this can be a helpful tool for different times throughout your child’s life. Read on to learn more and be sure to contact us with any questions you may have.
Different Purposes of Social Stories
As we already mentioned, social stories can be very helpful for children to better understand a situation they are going through. There are many different social stories that you can read to your children depending on what they may be dealing with or having trouble with. Some of these purposes for social stories include:
- To stop kids from biting
- To help children go to bed
- To help children with going to school
- To help create routines
Social stories are a great tool for creating routines with your children. These stories can walk them through the steps that they will go through in the morning before going to school or a nightly routine before going to bed. The stories can connect the different parts of a routine to create the entire experience. As we have mentioned in many blogs before, children thrive with routines and social stories can help you create those.
Allow Kids to Process
Another great reason to incorporate social stories into your regular routines with your child when they are dealing with different things is that it helps them process different things when they are not in the moment. When children get upset, their cortisol levels rise, which makes it hard for them to understand how to navigate the problem. This means that it is not a great time to deal with issues when they are upset.
Social stories are great because you can use them to discuss different things when your child isn’t feeling stressed or anxious about it. If your child has trouble being dropped off at school, reading them a social story about it the night before can help reduce their anxiety when you drop them off at school the next day. Social stories can help close the loop about certain things in their world that are still hard for them to process.
Where to Find Social Stories
Social stories are not hard to find, in fact, you may be reading social stories to your children already without even knowing it! One great online resource is Conscious Discipline. But you can also just Google the issue you want to help your child work through and find a social story about it online.
The children’s book section at any store is another great place to find them. There are a wide variety of books that you can choose from to help you get your child through any specific situation they are dealing with. From biting others to going to school, you will be able to find social stories for just about everything.
You can also make up your own social stories. If your child is dealing with something specific, you can make your own book and have your child help you. Print out pictures of your kiddos and the family to use in the book, let your child color the book, and put a personal touch on it. This will help your child get excited about the book and allow them to make the connection between themselves and how to deal with certain issues. It can also be a fun way for your child to get involved in a project with you and allows you to spend more time with them.
Social stories are a great way to help your child get through different issues and allows them to make connections and navigate different situations. No matter what your child might be dealing with or what you may want to help your child work through, social stories can be the best tool for parents. Whether you find social stories online, buy them at a store, or make your own, these are a great way to teach your child about different things.
If you have any questions about social stories or anything else, be sure to contact Yellow Brick Road Early Childhood Development Center today! We are happy to answer any questions you may have.
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