Social Stories for Kids in Conflict

Social Stories for Kids in Conflict is a practical guide to help young people improve their behaviour. Designed to help all those who work and/or live with young people who have difficulties with their behaviours and relationships with others, this book is a practical guide to help young people become more aware of their behaviour and its effect on other people.

Focusing on mediation (including communication, the unblocking of channels, the breaking down of barriers, the righting of wrongs, making amends, and restorative justice), the book includes:

• dialogues used by a neutral person to highlight difficulties and possible changes in behaviour
• cartoons and other visual techniques that can be used to present alternative ways to discuss problems
• examples of social stories covering personal stuff, daily routines, home life, social skills, homework, work and playtime, PE and games, as well as a guide to writing your own social stories
• Powerpoint presentation for staff, parents and carers.

Developed from work with children and young people with Autism, Asperger Syndrome, and related conditions, as well as troubled young people with no named condition, the ideas and techniques can be used and modified to help all young people to become more aware of their behaviour and its effect on other people. This 2nd edition has been revised and updated and now includes an expanded section of social stories.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Structure of the book

Social stories

Cartoons and other visual techniques

Online resources

Planning sheet

Subject index

Part 1 Social stories

Part 2 Cartoons and other visual techniques

Part 3 Context

Setting the contents in a real context

Involving the other children

Bibliography

"I saw John developing the ideas from this book from 2002 onwards as a consequence of his work with autistic children, especially children with Asperger's Syndrome, and especially with children who were experiencing difficulties in the classroom. He was looking for an efficient medium, a simple message and he wanted to make his advice readily available to a wide audience. I met a child (I work as an educational psychologist) who was 10 years of age and saw the undiagnosed signs of Asperger Syndrome. I recommended to her teacher and support assistant John's book as an obvious way of dealing with minor but repeating behaviour incidents. The support assistant told me some months later that John's book was an ideal resource. He gets straight down to his unique rendition of social stories applicable not only to autistic children but to any child who needs to be shown how to improve their behaviour – he made it applicable to the routines of the school day – this edition keeps the valuable cartoons and visual techniques – he provides a theoretical context for those who want to read it. Social Stories for Kids in Conflict, 2nd Edition is not intended to be a statement of theory or an instrument of research – it is a practical resource intended for the person who needs it. It is ideal for the special needs teacher, the class teacher, the support assistant and for the parent of a child who needs the benefit of a social stories approach. It shows the adult who works with the child what to do in difficult situations during the school day. The approach of social stories also works in the home context, so some parents would find the book helpful. This book provides the adult with the concepts and scripts to use directly with the child. I think the social stories approach could be aimed at a far wider child audience than autistic children and kids in conflict. The current target children have an intrinsic barrier to learning all the expected social skills. But I think it would work also for children who have a functional barrier, such as not being able to speak English well, being a recent immigrant to Britain or being for any reason confused, angry or in conflict, such that normal, expected patterns of behaviour in school are prevented. The second improvement would be that I would like to see the book help the support assistant write their own social stories that would then be even more applicable to the children they work with."
- Peter Forde, Educational Psychologist, B.Sc., Dip. Ed., M.A., M.Sc., DEd

"This is a fantastic, hands on guide for all people living or working with young people who are in conflict, and particularly relevant to young people who are on the autistic spectrum. The introductions are clear and provide valuable context. The examples, which are simply but well illustrated, provide extremely helpful guides to tackling some of the difficult issues that all kids in conflict face. I can see my staff using this to further support out students, whether they are in conflict or not. This will definitely be a must have book for my school."
- Geoff Brookes, Headmaster, Breckenbrough School

"A must have for enabling all young children to access storytelling. This is such an inclusive approach it is adaptable for all abilities."
- Stephen Parsons and Anna Branagan, authors, and Speech Language Therapy Team leaders at City and Hackney Teaching PCT