It’s natural to fall into routines over time and to prefer consistency over constant change. That can make dealing with sudden or unexpected changes so difficult, particularly children with special needs.
Changes come in many forms, be it a new classroom or transferring from the elementary school to the middle or junior high. A child could be facing an unexpected move to a new house, perhaps in a new city or town.
Helping your child prepare for changes well in advance can help ease the anxieties and fears that precede the event. Using social stories, a narrative that outlines what will happen with the upcoming move or change in scenery from your child’s perspective, can help prepare them with coping skills to use when they are feeling anxious and give them the knowledge to know what will happen throughout the process.
Social stories can be fully customized to suit your child’s individualized needs so the formatting is completely up to you! You may want to incorporate your child’s favorite story book or cartoon characters into the stories to make them more relatable as well.
Watson’s educational consultants created a number of sample social stories on changes that you can use to get started on topics including:
- moving to a new house
- sleeping in my own bed
- changing a behavior
Remember – make the social story fully customized to suit your child. In the weeks leading up to the change, read through the social story together and talk about the worries that your child may have and how they can cope with those concerns in constructive ways.
The special education resources on this page were authored by Watson Institute’s special education consultant, Sarah Mauskapf, MA, MT-BC, ATR-P, LAPC.
These behavior social stories may benefit your students. 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].
Sleeping In My Own Bed (Special Interest Area: Daniel Tiger & PJ Masks; Needs personalization throughout)
Stopping What I’m Doing and Making It OK (Topic: Stopping What I’m Doing. Special Interest Area: Spongebob)
If you have questions or concerns about the Watson Institute’s use of this information, please contact us.