When we are young, we are still learning about emotions and discovering our feelings. Children feel and process their emotions differently than they do as adults. Intense emotions like sadness, anger, and grief can be hard to handle without support or guidance.
Using social stories to teach your child or student how to process these types of emotions will help them as they mature and learn emotional regulation and coping skills.
The social story can provide examples for your child of actions they can take when they are feeling sad, like:
- talk about their feelings
- cry
- think of a happy memory
Keep the social stories handy for your child or student so you can remind them of the coping skills you discussed when the story was created and offer prompts as needed.
Often when we are feeling sad, having someone to listen and talk to can go a long way! Make sure your child or student knows they have someone available to them.
You can make your own social story or use one of the templates our educational consultants have prepared already!
Special Education Consultant/Author: Lisa Plastino, M.Ed.
These special education behavior stories may benefit your students when they are dealing with sadness or sad situations. They can be downloaded, saved and edited to suit your needs. The * notation indicates the story is formatted in a Power Point presentation and the ** notation indicates a Power Point with sound narration. Each Power Point has animation included on each slide. Some occur automatically – some occur on a “click”. Feel free to send comments or questions to [email protected].
If you have questions or concerns about the Watson Institute’s use of this information, please contact us.