Social stories

I'll have a go!!

Although my advice is going to be a bit off without knowing a little bit more about the age of the student, previous experience and their communication style (are they selective mute, do they have a good degree of reciprocal speech, say something, response, say something back etc.)

But I'll give it a go, making the assumption I'm talking to someone working at key stage 2 (7-11y) and the lesson we're doing would be "laundry"

1) I'd start by putting it into context, what is laundry and why do we do it.  Asking questions such as "have we ever heard of laundry? what are some of the things we think about when we talk about laundry?".  I would expect from that we'd get a conversation about wash days, washing machines, people might know things like detergent, or fabric conditioner.  People might talk about washing lines or tumble driers - really anything at all to get people thinking about the subject. 

2) By now we'd probably worked out we do laundry to wash our clothes, to keep clean.  I'd then like to establish the value of doing this.  Why do we keep our clothes clean?

- So we aren't smelly (possibly talk about the social consequences of that)
- So we keep healthy (talking about underwear, infections, getting poorly)
- So we look good (we could talk about our favourite clothes, favourite t-shirt and stains)

3) Practical.  We could do a bit of history now, we could show a video of how people in the past (and in other countries) wash their clothes in rivers and lakes, using a wash board.  It might be nice to get an old shirt, take it out in the garden and get it all messed up and muddy, bring it in.  Then see how long it takes with a bar of soap and a bucket of warm water to get it clean.

Think about how long it would take to do all your clothes, think about doing your whole families clothes!

Off the top of my head, Ruth Goodman from the brilliant BBC series Victorian Farm did some excellent pieces of wash day.  I find her incredibly watchable, but a younger mind may not find it as interesting.

4) Modern Day Cleaning.  Looking at labels on clothes, what do all the symbols mean? There's resources out there.  If you haven't looked on Twinkl (Google it) they are a resources website for Primary Schools with lots of sheets and plans.  Some of it is paid, others is free.

Sorting clothes into coloured and white wash - talk about why we do this and it's importance.

You can both put a load on together, talk about the settings on the machine, what they mean and what they do.

Fabric Conditioner - why is it used, you could look at what it's made with.  Again as I mentioned before, if you have the time and resources, you can have a visit to the supermarket and look at all the different types of washing powder and fabric conditioners.  You could look at the designs and smell the different fragrances.

Depending on how long you'd like to spend on this, you could fill a day with this one.  You could also see on subsequent days how much they remembered, can they do it themselves without support.  If they do need support, you could keep a record of what points they forgot, so you can go over these points again later to help reinforce the learning.

When you start planning other lessons and your head switches into "teacher mode" you'll find yourself coming up with lessons easy as pie, it's just about getting your head into the grove.

Good luck   

Would it work with soft toys or figures do you think?

Hi, could you explain maybe even step by step how you carry out the lessons you teach around daily living and independence skills please.   

I think it’s a case of try everything and see what works. but thank you everyone.  His class and school use Social Stories for emotions which would also be of benefit, his teacher will show them to them and explain how they work.  It’s also I guess practical stories we need as well 

Hey there!

I have worked in education for a number of years so can confidently state - there's lots of different ways you could do this.  You're definitely the best person to judge what is working best.  But as a suggestion, mirroring is a very good way of embedding concepts and routines into peoples lives.

- Brushing your teeth together, side by side watching each other in the mirror.  "Up down up down up down... now you try... side to side, side to side, now you try" etc.

- Showers and baths can be more interesting if you go out shopping for his own soap.  Depending on his sensory needs, you could go and sample the bewildering array of body soap gels.  Lots of different smells and colours.  Taking interest in his thoughts and reactions to the different smells, gage which one is most interesting to him.  Washing then becomes more interesting because hopefully he's taken more ownership of the experience by choosing what he wants to smell like.

As Chloe Mod suggested, perhaps if you look at the social stories it might give you an idea about how to attempt the other aspects of the learning you'd like him to do.  If there's any lesson ideas you'd like help with - I'm very happy to give some suggestions if you'd like to message back

Hello NAS75657,

It is great that you have considered talking about these concepts with your son. You might find it useful to have a look at out information on 'Social Stories' and visual supports, which can help autistic children to better understand day-to-day concepts/topics as well has prepare of upcoming events or changes in routine:

 https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/communication/communication-tools/social-stories-and-comic-strip-coversations

I hope this helps,

ChloeMod

What about an interactive puppet story?

I don't have kids so I may be completely off mark but I kind of remembered something from my preschool that had helped me understand "right from wrong". I want to be a preschool teacher too, so I am interested in these things!

You can creates short storied with toys or puppets where they ask your kid what he thinks is the right think to do and have a conversation about it if he says the wrong thing. 

An example:

The puppets are out playing and then they return home to eat lunch. They turn to your son and ask " hmmmm I feel like we should be doing something else first before eating, what could that be..? " You are supposed to wash your hands of course so you help him come to the conclusion himself and slowly talking to him about it and why we do that. 

Hope this will be fun for both of you!