March 24, 2025 • 25 mins
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**********************************
You’ve been asked to read a Social Story to a student—again.
And if you're being honest… you’re not sure it’s actually doing anything.
In this episode, we’re taking a closer look at the research behind Social Stories:
- Where they came from and what they were actually designed to do
- What the peer-reviewed literature says about their effectiveness (and what it doesn’t)
- How they can support emotional regulation... if you use them the right way
- The time frame for change (hint: it’s slower than you think)
- What to say when someone insists you “just need a social story”
Plus, you’ll get practical guidance on when and how to use Social Stories, and a free downloadable cheat sheet to help you back up your decisions with confidence.
If you’ve ever wondered, “Is it me… or is it the tool?”—this episode is for you.
Bonus: Grab the printable Social Stories resource pdf here
00:00 The Social Story Dilemma
01:49 Origins and Purpose of Social Stories
03:08 Research Findings on Social Stories
09:02 Emotional Regulation and Social Stories
11:44 Practical Advice for School Counselors
21:20 Conclusion and Resources
**********************************
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know that moment when a teacher stops by your
office and they say I have a kidthat cannot follow directions.
Do you have a social story youcould read to them?
And your first instinctprobably is to open up a Google
Doc or head to some sort ofwebsite and start searching for
(00:21):
a social story that looks cuteand gets close to what the
situation at hand might be.
I know that you do that becausewe have all been there.
But today I want to ask alittle bit bigger question what
is a social story reallysupposed to be and, more
(00:43):
importantly, do they even work?
In this episode we are going totalk real world about social
stories.
They've been sold to us as theholy grail of behavior
intervention, and so we're goingto talk about where did the
idea of social stories come from, how are they supposed to work
(01:06):
and what does the peer-reviewedliterature say about them.
And then, after we get donewith all that, we're going to
talk about whether or not youshould be using them as a school
counselor.
Welcome back to the School forSchool Counselors podcast.
I'm Steph Johnson, a full-timeschool counselor just like you,
(01:27):
so excited to welcome you backfor another episode of the
podcast.
I strive each and every week tobring you the best in school
counseling information toinspire your growth and help you
feel more capable, moreconfident and more competent in
your work.
So let's get back to socialstories.
(01:49):
What is a social story really?
The idea of social stories camearound in the early 90s.
A woman named Carol Graydecided that it would be a good
idea to present these stories topromote social understanding.
Now, make a point of that,because it wasn't to control or
(02:12):
to influence behavior, it was tobuild social understanding and
originally these stories weredesigned for students with
pervasive developmental delaysor with autism.
These stories are supposed todescribe specific situations
from the student's point of viewand theoretically they have a
(02:36):
prescribed ratio of certainkinds of sentences.
They have descriptive.
They have descriptiveperspective and directive
sentences in a controlled ratio.
They were originally designedto help decode social cues for
kids that had difficultyunderstanding those and were
(02:57):
never meant to be lectures orconsequences.
Social stories were developedto prepare and to reassure.
So what does the research sayabout social stories?
Because if you work anywhere,like where I work, people come
up with this grand idea prettyoften that hey, we just we need
(03:21):
to get them a social story thatshould take care of it.
Have you been in that situation?
I bet you know what I'm talkingabout.
What does the research say?
Now let me tell you.
I got interested in this because, again, I keep getting asked to
present these social stories,and I would do so with fidelity,
(03:42):
and I really would never seethe needle move.
Much as a matter of fact, I'veoften had my social stories
crumpled up and thrown at me.
If I'm being real, that'susually how those end up and so
I started thinking is it me oris it the tool?
And so I wanted to dive in andlearn more.
(04:03):
The tool, and so I wanted todive in and learn more.
Then this past week, as I wasenjoying spring break at home,
scrolling social media, seeingwhat was going on in the school
counseling world, I ran across apost talking about a school
counselor who had been mandatedto provide social stories to a
student.
And I thought you know, withall of the talk this month on
(04:25):
the podcast about behaviorintervention and as often as we
are asked to provide thesesocial stories, they're worth
looking into Because, like it ornot, we are being asked more
and more throughout our countryto provide longer-term
counseling or IEP-mandatedcounseling, which comes through
(04:48):
special education.
Is that an ideal situation?
No, it is not.
However, we also know that weneed our paychecks and we are
paid to follow directions.
So you will never see me givethis aspirational information,
this perfect world scenario, and, just because you are not
(05:11):
supposed to be doing longer-termcounseling, just completely
ignoring that aspect of your job.
I think that's where we've gonewrong in school counseling.
Instead, I want to be real andhonest with you about some of
the things that you're beingasked to do, and this longer
term counseling, iep mandatedcounseling and social stories,
just to name a few, are going tobe things that are going to be
(05:34):
part of your world.
If not now, I can almostguarantee you're going to see it
in the future, and I alwayswant to be informed.
I always want to know if whatI'm doing has an evidence base
behind it.
Is the research base sound?
As a matter of fact, we justreleased a new relational
aggression school counselorplaybook in our mastermind this
(05:55):
weekend, and as you flip to theend of it, you see an entire
page of references that wereused in creating that playbook,
because I believe very deeply inevidence-based work.
So let's jump into it.
Let's find out if social storiesreally make the cut.
Let's start with Kokina andKern 2010.
(06:19):
They did a meta-analysis of 18studies regarding social stories
.
Half of the studies showedresults and half of them did not
.
They found the best outcomeswere for verbal elementary age
students, particularly when thestory was read by the student.
(06:43):
Now pause there for just aminute and think.
Most often we're either askedto read these to or with the
student, or we just sort ofassume that it's our job to do
that to facilitate the process.
Right, but this study said holdthat thought, maybe it's better
(07:03):
if the students read themthemselves.
Then it introduces a problembecause we have a lot of kids in
our schools whose readinglevels are either very, very low
or they can't readindependently at all.
So keep this in mind as we'regoing through this research.
So so far we have a 50-50chance of this working, but only
(07:27):
if the student is able to readit themselves.
Moving on, reynout and Carter2006, found that adherence to
Carol Gray's sentence structuresremember that ratio of those
three different kinds ofsentences she said were
essential in good social storiesyeah, that didn't always
(07:47):
improve effectiveness.
They also noted that there werevery few studies that tracked
the long-term effects orgeneralization of skills coming
from social stories.
Wayman and Team, 2022 showedthat preschoolers who were
presented with social storieshad improved prosocial behavior,
(08:11):
but challenging behaviorreductions were not significant
and overall they noted that thequality of research with that
age group was very, very low.
And Hagopian and Lowry 2020,showed that social stories with
visuals were effective forstudents at risk for emotional
(08:34):
or behavioral disorders.
So we're really seeing somemixed effects here.
But the biggest thing that Ihave taken away from this
research so far is that there isno resounding evidence that
these social stories are thehome run that they've been made
out to be.
So I tell you what let's dig alittle bit deeper into the
(08:58):
research to get a little bitfuller story.
What does the research say aboutsocial stories and emotional
regulation?
Nine times out of ten, when theschool counselor is called to
present a social story, it iseither meant to be a procedural
(09:18):
story or something meant toenhance emotional regulation.
So how do these stories fit inwith the emotional regulation
piece?
Evidence is telling us is thatif social stories are used for
(09:38):
their original intent ofpreparation and reassurance,
they can help a little.
So preparation would be thingslike preparing for an assembly
there is a fire drill coming upthose kinds of things where
students become dysregulatedbecause of a certain happening.
If we can prepare them, socialstories can be effective in
(09:59):
those situations.
Sometimes they're effective inhelping reassure students
throughout a process.
What happens when you go visitthe speech therapist?
What does PE class look like?
When you walk into the room?
What's the first day ofkindergarten going to feel like
those kinds of things?
If they're used for preparationand reassurance, they can help
(10:23):
a little.
Social stories have not beenshown to promote coping skills
directly, but they can reduceanxiety by making the situations
feel more predictable.
So we could potentially usethem to preview anxiety-inducing
situations or to normalizeemotional responses and perhaps,
(10:50):
maybe even to teach some saferesponses.
Maybe even to teach some saferesponses.
Coquina and Kern 2010, againshowed mixed results, but also
noted that some studentsbenefited when emotional
language was used in the socialstory and reinforcements were
(11:11):
provided.
So think of social stories as atool for clarity and for
reassurance, not for therapeuticintent.
They're not going to build anemotional toolkit for a kid,
they're not going to be thatmagic bullet that we're hoping
to someday find for schoolcounseling, but they can perhaps
(11:34):
help students access theirskills and tools.
So, with all this mixed research, all these things up in the air
, what do we do as schoolcounselors if we have,
potentially, an IEP committeethat comes to us and says we
would like to write in socialstories for a student?
(11:55):
Or, my goodness, even yourprincipal or a teacher walks up
to your door and says I need youto give this kid a social story
.
They're just not understandingwhat it is they're supposed to
be doing or they just won't stopyelling out in class or
whatever it is.
We need to have our go-to,evidence-based response, because
(12:20):
one of the most importantpowers that we have as school
counselors is the ability torationalize our approaches
through the research.
If we start just spouting offopinions about how we feel about
social stories, that argumentis going nowhere.
But if we are able to provide aconcise explanation of why we
(12:46):
feel that this social story maynot be the best tool for that
student, we're going to be in amuch better place to be able to
bargain through it and providesome alternative ideas for
supports.
So if we decide to use socialstories and, by the way, I'm
going to have a printable foryou with this podcast episode
(13:08):
that is going to give you aconcise summary of all of these
research points so that ifyou're ever in this conversation
, or you know it's coming,you'll be able to have the
information that you need atyour fingertips.
I'm not trying to push you awayfrom using social stories and
I'm not trying to push you intousing them, but I do want you to
(13:32):
be equipped with the knowledgeand the expertise to make your
argument.
Either way you choose.
If we decide that a social storymight be appropriate for a
student, we need to make sure wedo some of the following things
.
First, we have to personalizethe story.
The evidence base shows us thatif we present a generic story
(13:57):
that doesn't really connect withthe student, it doesn't connect
with their culture or theiridentity or their specific
situation.
It's not going to hit home.
The story must be personalized,personalized.
(14:20):
Second, the social story needsto be used before the behavior
occurs.
This is tricky because we can'talways predict when those
behaviors are going to pop upright.
So we're going to have to beintentional about identifying
the antecedents of the behaviorso that we know when to step in
with the social story.
But that also presents anotherproblem because that means we've
got to be on call to providethis story.
(14:41):
If it is going to be us.
My recommendation would be ifyou feel a social story would be
appropriate for a student, youalso need to make the point that
the social story needs to bedelivered in real time, which
means it should not be you Not,with all of the surprises that
(15:01):
you get in your day, all of theunplanned things that go on on
your campus.
There is no way that you can beon call for a teacher to say
hey, in two minutes we'retransitioning to this thing, can
you come read this social story?
It's not realistic.
Third, and supporting thatargument, social stories need to
(15:22):
be read with the student.
If the student cannot read themto you, read them with the
student.
Fourth, it must contain visualsor videos if you have any hope
of the content landing with thisstudent.
And fifth, of the contentlanding with this student.
(15:43):
And fifth and this is the partwe miss a lot in schools it
needs to be paired with modelingand reinforcement.
We cannot just read a socialstory and expect it to change
this child's entire perspectiveon their school career.
It's not going to happen If youchoose to use social stories, I
suggest you do it with a verystrong teacher who is able to
(16:07):
see when that student isbecoming escalated or
dysregulated so that they canstep in, so they can provide
that social story in real timeand then follow it up with
modeling and reinforcement timeand then follow it up with
modeling and reinforcement.
That's a tall order on ourschool campuses, especially when
we're talking about resourcesthat statistically have not been
(16:28):
proven to be effective.
But again, if we choose to usethese stories, we also have to
make sure that we stay away fromthe don'ts.
Don't use social stories as apunishment.
I see that a lot and I hearabout that a lot on school
campuses.
They can't keep their hands tothemselves when they hit.
(16:51):
We need to read this socialstory.
It will not be effective ifit's used as a punishment or
after the fact.
Second, we cannot pull randomsocial stories and present them
without reviewing andpersonalizing them.
Again, the evidence base tellsus that is not going to work.
(17:12):
But how often do you see that?
And, be honest, how often haveyou yourself hopped onto
something like Teachers PayTeachers, found the social story
that seems to align the bestwith the situation, downloaded
it and you were off to the races.
I will admit I've done itbefore I get it, but it's not
(17:34):
best practice and we also, withthese social stories, cannot
expect instant change.
This is going to be incrementalchange, where again and I feel
like I'm harping on this, but Ijust want to drive this point
home If you take away nothingelse from this episode, I want
you to internalize the fact thatthese social stories have not
(18:00):
been shown to promotestatistically significant
effects and even if they dobring around positive change, it
is going to be slow.
So you may be thinking allright, steph.
Well, what is the expectedtimeline of change if we're
using a social story?
Is the expected timeline ofchange if we're using a social
(18:26):
story If it is related to abehavior that is clearly defined
, something ultra specific likestaying in your seat or not
pushing your classmates whenyou're lining up that are
observable, they're measurableand those stories are read daily
and consistently.
You have a chance of seeingsome improvement within two
(18:48):
weeks, but it has to beaddressed with fidelity for at
least two weeks.
Kokina and Kern's study showedthat social story implementation
did bring around some change,but most of that change was
short-term, it did not last anddid not generalize to other
(19:11):
situations.
Similarly, ray and Carter in2006 found that a lot of
students who were presented withsocial stories responded within
five to ten intervention dayswhich takes us back to that two
school week time frame and allimprovements were not maintained
.
And these researchers alsofound and noted that no one
(19:38):
really has assessed long-termmaintenance of skills through
social stories in the literature, and those skills are not being
shown to generalize to othersituations.
So we're not guaranteeinglasting change, even if we do
see some change through usingthese social stories.
This is the same argument thatI've had for years about
(20:02):
teachers pay, teachers resourcesand I know that I may be
slaying a sacred cow for you,because that may be where you're
getting a lot of your lessonsand materials, but I really feel
like if they were that great,surely somebody somewhere would
be coming up with some data tosupport that.
So far, none of our creatorsare doing that.
(20:22):
And it's the same with socialstories, all right.
So I feel like I'm reallydogging on these, but I just
wanted to present to you whatthe peer-reviewed literature
says, not what the behavioristdown the hallway says, not what
your school psych believes, notwhat the common ideation the
hallway says not what yourschool psych believes, not what
the common ideation on yourcampus might be.
(20:44):
What does the literatureactually say about social
stories?
Social stories are meh.
They might help, they might not.
If they're going to help, thereare a lot of constraints.
There are a lot of expectationsthat have to be built into that
for it to be successful andeven then you've only got
(21:05):
probably a 50-50 shot at best.
My opinion I will not bepushing for social stories on my
campus.
I think we can access a lotmore effective tools in our work
than reading a story that mayor may not work.
I just don't see the benefit.
But again, I want to leave thisliterature in your lap so that
(21:26):
you can make the best decisionfor your campus and for your
students.
If you want that cheat sheet ofsocial story literature, you can
check the show notes of thisepisode.
There will be a link rightthere for you to go download
that sheet and have it.
You can keep it on your harddrive or in your file cabinet
(21:46):
forever, so you will be preparedand not feel like you are
caught in a corner the next timesomeone comes and suggests that
you provide a social story fora student and I hope that was
helpful to you.
You know, everything that I doin School for School Counselors
is designed to elevate not onlyyour practice of school
(22:08):
counseling but the way that youfeel about your work.
I don't ever want you feelinglike you're caught, like you
don't know how to address anissue.
You have that little niggle inthe back of your mind that says
I don't feel like that's thebest idea, but I really can't
explain why in the moment.
To me that's one of the worstfeelings in the world and that's
(22:30):
why I do what I do each andevery day.
This is an exciting time becausewe're just wrapping up the
month of March, as I'm recording, and we've had some amazing
things going on in our Schoolfor School Counselors Mastermind
.
We've held a behaviorintervention masterclass which
totally blew everybody's mindsbecause we introduced a new
(22:53):
behavior decision-makingframework for next steps for
behavior.
So you don't feel like you'rejust grasping at straws trying
to figure out what to do nextwith this kid.
We also introduced a decisiontree for determining whether
behavior is really dysregulationor whether it's defiance,
because, be honest, you'vewondered that a time or two,
(23:16):
haven't you?
We've looked at our use of timedata on our campuses.
We've begun preparing for endof year data stories so that we
can advocate effectively andconfidently for our programs.
We've held weekly support andconsultation chats and we've
just introduced a new AI botinto our mastermind that we're
(23:38):
testing right now.
Might be able to tell you alittle bit more about it in the
months to come, and you know howI feel about AI, so you know
we're being very, very carefulwith this, but we also don't
want to be left behind.
So we're doing all of thesethings right now.
In our mastermind.
Our members have access to eachand every resource I just
(24:00):
described in an April.
It's only going to get better.
Where we're shifting our focusfrom behavior and we're looking
at ADHD supports andinterventions.
What are some ways we canreally effectively help these
students who have so muchtrouble with impulse control or
with concentration.
(24:21):
Those are really reallydifficult interventions, and
executive function, I think, iskind of hard to work into
because, again, you feel likeyou're just shooting towards
these moving targets.
We're going to talk through allof that in our April Mastermind
Masterclass, in addition to ourweekly support and consultation
, our data discussions, our newSaturday morning coffee chats
(24:46):
and a bonus session I'm going tobe doing about professional
stamina Y'all.
Nobody else in the schoolcounseling world is providing
this level of support,especially at this price point.
$32 a month will get your seatin the School for School
Counselors Mastermind.
We have to charge to keepeverything running because
(25:06):
there's a lot of awesome stuffgoing on in there.
But if you think this is theplace for you and I promise you
we can help you end the yearstrong, head over to the website
to get more informationschoolforschoolcounselorscom.
Slash mastermind.
All right, keep fighting thegood fight.
Go print out that socialstories evidence-based sheet so
(25:28):
you have it when you need it,and I will be back soon with
another episode of the Schoolfor School Counselors podcast.
Take care, my friend.
You know that moment when a teacher stops by your
office and they say I have a kidthat cannot follow directions.
Do you have a social story youcould read to them?
And your first instinctprobably is to open up a Google
Doc or head to some sort ofwebsite and start searching for
(00:21):
a social story that looks cuteand gets close to what the
situation at hand might be.
I know that you do that becausewe have all been there.
But today I want to ask alittle bit bigger question what
is a social story reallysupposed to be and, more
(00:43):
importantly, do they even work?
In this episode we are going totalk real world about social
stories.
They've been sold to us as theholy grail of behavior
intervention, and so we're goingto talk about where did the
idea of social stories come from, how are they supposed to work
(01:06):
and what does the peer-reviewedliterature say about them.
And then, after we get donewith all that, we're going to
talk about whether or not youshould be using them as a school
counselor.
Welcome back to the School forSchool Counselors podcast.
I'm Steph Johnson, a full-timeschool counselor just like you,
(01:27):
so excited to welcome you backfor another episode of the
podcast.
I strive each and every week tobring you the best in school
counseling information toinspire your growth and help you
feel more capable, moreconfident and more competent in
your work.
So let's get back to socialstories.
(01:49):
What is a social story really?
The idea of social stories camearound in the early 90s.
A woman named Carol Graydecided that it would be a good
idea to present these stories topromote social understanding.
Now, make a point of that,because it wasn't to control or
(02:12):
to influence behavior, it was tobuild social understanding and
originally these stories weredesigned for students with
pervasive developmental delaysor with autism.
These stories are supposed todescribe specific situations
from the student's point of viewand theoretically they have a
(02:36):
prescribed ratio of certainkinds of sentences.
They have descriptive.
They have descriptiveperspective and directive
sentences in a controlled ratio.
They were originally designedto help decode social cues for
kids that had difficultyunderstanding those and were
(02:57):
never meant to be lectures orconsequences.
Social stories were developedto prepare and to reassure.
So what does the research sayabout social stories?
Because if you work anywhere,like where I work, people come
up with this grand idea prettyoften that hey, we just we need
(03:21):
to get them a social story thatshould take care of it.
Have you been in that situation?
I bet you know what I'm talkingabout.
What does the research say?
Now let me tell you.
I got interested in this because, again, I keep getting asked to
present these social stories,and I would do so with fidelity,
(03:42):
and I really would never seethe needle move.
Much as a matter of fact, I'veoften had my social stories
crumpled up and thrown at me.
If I'm being real, that'susually how those end up and so
I started thinking is it me oris it the tool?
And so I wanted to dive in andlearn more.
(04:03):
The tool, and so I wanted todive in and learn more.
Then this past week, as I wasenjoying spring break at home,
scrolling social media, seeingwhat was going on in the school
counseling world, I ran across apost talking about a school
counselor who had been mandatedto provide social stories to a
student.
And I thought you know, withall of the talk this month on
(04:25):
the podcast about behaviorintervention and as often as we
are asked to provide thesesocial stories, they're worth
looking into Because, like it ornot, we are being asked more
and more throughout our countryto provide longer-term
counseling or IEP-mandatedcounseling, which comes through
(04:48):
special education.
Is that an ideal situation?
No, it is not.
However, we also know that weneed our paychecks and we are
paid to follow directions.
So you will never see me givethis aspirational information,
this perfect world scenario, and, just because you are not
(05:11):
supposed to be doing longer-termcounseling, just completely
ignoring that aspect of your job.
I think that's where we've gonewrong in school counseling.
Instead, I want to be real andhonest with you about some of
the things that you're beingasked to do, and this longer
term counseling, iep mandatedcounseling and social stories,
just to name a few, are going tobe things that are going to be
(05:34):
part of your world.
If not now, I can almostguarantee you're going to see it
in the future, and I alwayswant to be informed.
I always want to know if whatI'm doing has an evidence base
behind it.
Is the research base sound?
As a matter of fact, we justreleased a new relational
aggression school counselorplaybook in our mastermind this
(05:55):
weekend, and as you flip to theend of it, you see an entire
page of references that wereused in creating that playbook,
because I believe very deeply inevidence-based work.
So let's jump into it.
Let's find out if social storiesreally make the cut.
Let's start with Kokina andKern 2010.
(06:19):
They did a meta-analysis of 18studies regarding social stories
.
Half of the studies showedresults and half of them did not
.
They found the best outcomeswere for verbal elementary age
students, particularly when thestory was read by the student.
(06:43):
Now pause there for just aminute and think.
Most often we're either askedto read these to or with the
student, or we just sort ofassume that it's our job to do
that to facilitate the process.
Right, but this study said holdthat thought, maybe it's better
(07:03):
if the students read themthemselves.
Then it introduces a problembecause we have a lot of kids in
our schools whose readinglevels are either very, very low
or they can't readindependently at all.
So keep this in mind as we'regoing through this research.
So so far we have a 50-50chance of this working, but only
(07:27):
if the student is able to readit themselves.
Moving on, reynout and Carter2006, found that adherence to
Carol Gray's sentence structuresremember that ratio of those
three different kinds ofsentences she said were
essential in good social storiesyeah, that didn't always
(07:47):
improve effectiveness.
They also noted that there werevery few studies that tracked
the long-term effects orgeneralization of skills coming
from social stories.
Wayman and Team, 2022 showedthat preschoolers who were
presented with social storieshad improved prosocial behavior,
(08:11):
but challenging behaviorreductions were not significant
and overall they noted that thequality of research with that
age group was very, very low.
And Hagopian and Lowry 2020,showed that social stories with
visuals were effective forstudents at risk for emotional
(08:34):
or behavioral disorders.
So we're really seeing somemixed effects here.
But the biggest thing that Ihave taken away from this
research so far is that there isno resounding evidence that
these social stories are thehome run that they've been made
out to be.
So I tell you what let's dig alittle bit deeper into the
(08:58):
research to get a little bitfuller story.
What does the research say aboutsocial stories and emotional
regulation?
Nine times out of ten, when theschool counselor is called to
present a social story, it iseither meant to be a procedural
(09:18):
story or something meant toenhance emotional regulation.
So how do these stories fit inwith the emotional regulation
piece?
Evidence is telling us is thatif social stories are used for
(09:38):
their original intent ofpreparation and reassurance,
they can help a little.
So preparation would be thingslike preparing for an assembly
there is a fire drill coming upthose kinds of things where
students become dysregulatedbecause of a certain happening.
If we can prepare them, socialstories can be effective in
(09:59):
those situations.
Sometimes they're effective inhelping reassure students
throughout a process.
What happens when you go visitthe speech therapist?
What does PE class look like?
When you walk into the room?
What's the first day ofkindergarten going to feel like
those kinds of things?
If they're used for preparationand reassurance, they can help
(10:23):
a little.
Social stories have not beenshown to promote coping skills
directly, but they can reduceanxiety by making the situations
feel more predictable.
So we could potentially usethem to preview anxiety-inducing
situations or to normalizeemotional responses and perhaps,
(10:50):
maybe even to teach some saferesponses.
Maybe even to teach some saferesponses.
Coquina and Kern 2010, againshowed mixed results, but also
noted that some studentsbenefited when emotional
language was used in the socialstory and reinforcements were
(11:11):
provided.
So think of social stories as atool for clarity and for
reassurance, not for therapeuticintent.
They're not going to build anemotional toolkit for a kid,
they're not going to be thatmagic bullet that we're hoping
to someday find for schoolcounseling, but they can perhaps
(11:34):
help students access theirskills and tools.
So, with all this mixed research, all these things up in the air
, what do we do as schoolcounselors if we have,
potentially, an IEP committeethat comes to us and says we
would like to write in socialstories for a student?
(11:55):
Or, my goodness, even yourprincipal or a teacher walks up
to your door and says I need youto give this kid a social story
.
They're just not understandingwhat it is they're supposed to
be doing or they just won't stopyelling out in class or
whatever it is.
We need to have our go-to,evidence-based response, because
(12:20):
one of the most importantpowers that we have as school
counselors is the ability torationalize our approaches
through the research.
If we start just spouting offopinions about how we feel about
social stories, that argumentis going nowhere.
But if we are able to provide aconcise explanation of why we
(12:46):
feel that this social story maynot be the best tool for that
student, we're going to be in amuch better place to be able to
bargain through it and providesome alternative ideas for
supports.
So if we decide to use socialstories and, by the way, I'm
going to have a printable foryou with this podcast episode
(13:08):
that is going to give you aconcise summary of all of these
research points so that ifyou're ever in this conversation
, or you know it's coming,you'll be able to have the
information that you need atyour fingertips.
I'm not trying to push you awayfrom using social stories and
I'm not trying to push you intousing them, but I do want you to
(13:32):
be equipped with the knowledgeand the expertise to make your
argument.
Either way you choose.
If we decide that a social storymight be appropriate for a
student, we need to make sure wedo some of the following things
.
First, we have to personalizethe story.
The evidence base shows us thatif we present a generic story
(13:57):
that doesn't really connect withthe student, it doesn't connect
with their culture or theiridentity or their specific
situation.
It's not going to hit home.
The story must be personalized,personalized.
(14:20):
Second, the social story needsto be used before the behavior
occurs.
This is tricky because we can'talways predict when those
behaviors are going to pop upright.
So we're going to have to beintentional about identifying
the antecedents of the behaviorso that we know when to step in
with the social story.
But that also presents anotherproblem because that means we've
got to be on call to providethis story.
(14:41):
If it is going to be us.
My recommendation would be ifyou feel a social story would be
appropriate for a student, youalso need to make the point that
the social story needs to bedelivered in real time, which
means it should not be you Not,with all of the surprises that
(15:01):
you get in your day, all of theunplanned things that go on on
your campus.
There is no way that you can beon call for a teacher to say
hey, in two minutes we'retransitioning to this thing, can
you come read this social story?
It's not realistic.
Third, and supporting thatargument, social stories need to
(15:22):
be read with the student.
If the student cannot read themto you, read them with the
student.
Fourth, it must contain visualsor videos if you have any hope
of the content landing with thisstudent.
And fifth, of the contentlanding with this student.
(15:43):
And fifth and this is the partwe miss a lot in schools it
needs to be paired with modelingand reinforcement.
We cannot just read a socialstory and expect it to change
this child's entire perspectiveon their school career.
It's not going to happen If youchoose to use social stories, I
suggest you do it with a verystrong teacher who is able to
(16:07):
see when that student isbecoming escalated or
dysregulated so that they canstep in, so they can provide
that social story in real timeand then follow it up with
modeling and reinforcement timeand then follow it up with
modeling and reinforcement.
That's a tall order on ourschool campuses, especially when
we're talking about resourcesthat statistically have not been
(16:28):
proven to be effective.
But again, if we choose to usethese stories, we also have to
make sure that we stay away fromthe don'ts.
Don't use social stories as apunishment.
I see that a lot and I hearabout that a lot on school
campuses.
They can't keep their hands tothemselves when they hit.
(16:51):
We need to read this socialstory.
It will not be effective ifit's used as a punishment or
after the fact.
Second, we cannot pull randomsocial stories and present them
without reviewing andpersonalizing them.
Again, the evidence base tellsus that is not going to work.
(17:12):
But how often do you see that?
And, be honest, how often haveyou yourself hopped onto
something like Teachers PayTeachers, found the social story
that seems to align the bestwith the situation, downloaded
it and you were off to the races.
I will admit I've done itbefore I get it, but it's not
(17:34):
best practice and we also, withthese social stories, cannot
expect instant change.
This is going to be incrementalchange, where again and I feel
like I'm harping on this, but Ijust want to drive this point
home If you take away nothingelse from this episode, I want
you to internalize the fact thatthese social stories have not
(18:00):
been shown to promotestatistically significant
effects and even if they dobring around positive change, it
is going to be slow.
So you may be thinking allright, steph.
Well, what is the expectedtimeline of change if we're
using a social story?
Is the expected timeline ofchange if we're using a social
(18:26):
story If it is related to abehavior that is clearly defined
, something ultra specific likestaying in your seat or not
pushing your classmates whenyou're lining up that are
observable, they're measurableand those stories are read daily
and consistently.
You have a chance of seeingsome improvement within two
(18:48):
weeks, but it has to beaddressed with fidelity for at
least two weeks.
Kokina and Kern's study showedthat social story implementation
did bring around some change,but most of that change was
short-term, it did not last anddid not generalize to other
(19:11):
situations.
Similarly, ray and Carter in2006 found that a lot of
students who were presented withsocial stories responded within
five to ten intervention dayswhich takes us back to that two
school week time frame and allimprovements were not maintained
.
And these researchers alsofound and noted that no one
(19:38):
really has assessed long-termmaintenance of skills through
social stories in the literature, and those skills are not being
shown to generalize to othersituations.
So we're not guaranteeinglasting change, even if we do
see some change through usingthese social stories.
This is the same argument thatI've had for years about
(20:02):
teachers pay, teachers resourcesand I know that I may be
slaying a sacred cow for you,because that may be where you're
getting a lot of your lessonsand materials, but I really feel
like if they were that great,surely somebody somewhere would
be coming up with some data tosupport that.
So far, none of our creatorsare doing that.
(20:22):
And it's the same with socialstories, all right.
So I feel like I'm reallydogging on these, but I just
wanted to present to you whatthe peer-reviewed literature
says, not what the behavioristdown the hallway says, not what
your school psych believes, notwhat the common ideation the
hallway says not what yourschool psych believes, not what
the common ideation on yourcampus might be.
(20:44):
What does the literatureactually say about social
stories?
Social stories are meh.
They might help, they might not.
If they're going to help, thereare a lot of constraints.
There are a lot of expectationsthat have to be built into that
for it to be successful andeven then you've only got
(21:05):
probably a 50-50 shot at best.
My opinion I will not bepushing for social stories on my
campus.
I think we can access a lotmore effective tools in our work
than reading a story that mayor may not work.
I just don't see the benefit.
But again, I want to leave thisliterature in your lap so that
(21:26):
you can make the best decisionfor your campus and for your
students.
If you want that cheat sheet ofsocial story literature, you can
check the show notes of thisepisode.
There will be a link rightthere for you to go download
that sheet and have it.
You can keep it on your harddrive or in your file cabinet
(21:46):
forever, so you will be preparedand not feel like you are
caught in a corner the next timesomeone comes and suggests that
you provide a social story fora student and I hope that was
helpful to you.
You know, everything that I doin School for School Counselors
is designed to elevate not onlyyour practice of school
(22:08):
counseling but the way that youfeel about your work.
I don't ever want you feelinglike you're caught, like you
don't know how to address anissue.
You have that little niggle inthe back of your mind that says
I don't feel like that's thebest idea, but I really can't
explain why in the moment.
To me that's one of the worstfeelings in the world and that's
(22:30):
why I do what I do each andevery day.
This is an exciting time becausewe're just wrapping up the
month of March, as I'm recording, and we've had some amazing
things going on in our Schoolfor School Counselors Mastermind
.
We've held a behaviorintervention masterclass which
totally blew everybody's mindsbecause we introduced a new
(22:53):
behavior decision-makingframework for next steps for
behavior.
So you don't feel like you'rejust grasping at straws trying
to figure out what to do nextwith this kid.
We also introduced a decisiontree for determining whether
behavior is really dysregulationor whether it's defiance,
because, be honest, you'vewondered that a time or two,
(23:16):
haven't you?
We've looked at our use of timedata on our campuses.
We've begun preparing for endof year data stories so that we
can advocate effectively andconfidently for our programs.
We've held weekly support andconsultation chats and we've
just introduced a new AI botinto our mastermind that we're
(23:38):
testing right now.
Might be able to tell you alittle bit more about it in the
months to come, and you know howI feel about AI, so you know
we're being very, very carefulwith this, but we also don't
want to be left behind.
So we're doing all of thesethings right now.
In our mastermind.
Our members have access to eachand every resource I just
(24:00):
described in an April.
It's only going to get better.
Where we're shifting our focusfrom behavior and we're looking
at ADHD supports andinterventions.
What are some ways we canreally effectively help these
students who have so muchtrouble with impulse control or
with concentration.
(24:21):
Those are really reallydifficult interventions, and
executive function, I think, iskind of hard to work into
because, again, you feel likeyou're just shooting towards
these moving targets.
We're going to talk through allof that in our April Mastermind
Masterclass, in addition to ourweekly support and consultation
, our data discussions, our newSaturday morning coffee chats
(24:46):
and a bonus session I'm going tobe doing about professional
stamina Y'all.
Nobody else in the schoolcounseling world is providing
this level of support,especially at this price point.
$32 a month will get your seatin the School for School
Counselors Mastermind.
We have to charge to keepeverything running because
(25:06):
there's a lot of awesome stuffgoing on in there.
But if you think this is theplace for you and I promise you
we can help you end the yearstrong, head over to the website
to get more informationschoolforschoolcounselorscom.
Slash mastermind.
All right, keep fighting thegood fight.
Go print out that socialstories evidence-based sheet so
(25:28):
you have it when you need it,and I will be back soon with
another episode of the Schoolfor School Counselors podcast.
Take care, my friend.
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