Autism Spectrum Disorder is a developmental disorder which affects the way a person interacts and communicates with others.

Interestingly, almost four times more boys than girls are diagnosed with autism. Children are generally diagnosed with autism by three years of age.

The term ‘Autistic Spectrum Disorders’ encompasses the many varying degrees of autism, from low functioning autism where the child will almost certainly have other difficulties such as seizures and in most cases educational deficits. On the other end of the ‘Autistic Spectrum Disorders’ scale – Asperger’s syndrome or high functioning autism, where the child will almost certainly be of average or above average intelligence.

As with typically developing children all children with autism develop at varying degrees and no two children will ever be exactly the same.

However that said, all children on the spectrum will have Social Skills deficits, these are common to autism. Social skills deficits affect the way children on the spectrum develop socially, as well as their communication skills and imagination skills.

Having social skills deficits can mean your child with ASD may be unable to communicate effectively, they may find making friends difficult and become stressed in social settings.

For many parents their child’s inability to relate or interact with other people can be stressful. Coupled with their child’s communication difficulties and odd use of language many parents can feel frustrated and need help to teach their child appropriate social and communication skills and behaviours.

Children with Autism need social skills teaching directly, it is of no use to simply explain what your child should be doing, this will not help. Typically children with autism are visual thinkers and learners’, meaning spoken or written information is not going to be understood as easily as information given visually.

So what does this mean for the child with ASD, well put simply talk less and use more visual supports when trying to teach an ASD child social and communication skills.

Children with Autism need help understanding social skills, and research shows us the use of visual resources and supports is very beneficial. A good source of visual resources and supports are social stories. Social stories have been around for over twenty years and are probably the most widely used resource for teaching and re-enforcing social and communication skills.

Social stories are short descriptive stories much like a comic script with visual images showing a skill or behaviour in a manner that is easily understood.

The social skills story breaks down the skill, such as respecting personal space, washing your teeth, taking a bath, eating dinner even visiting the dentist into small chunks, removes the frills and shows with visual images and first person direct text.

Explaining the “wh” questions – who, where, why, when and what, as well as giving an insight into emotions, thoughts and feelings of those others involved, and suggest possible outcomes.

The social skills story will let your child know what to expect from others and in return what others will expect from them, all helping to make the child with ASD more comfortable with and in the situation.

To learn more about how social skills stories work as well as getting access to downloads of social skills stories visit: http://www.autismsocialstories.com

Where you will find 100’s of ready to download stories for hygiene, play, family matters as well as some stories for the classroom and aggressive behaviour

Alternatively visit:
http://www.autismsocialstories.com/school
http://www.autismsocialstories.com/preschool