ASD Autism Spectrum Disorder is a neurological disorder that affects an individual’s ability to interact, communicate both verbally and non verbally, relate to others, play, use their imagination, process information and learn.
Typically Kids with autism spectrum disorder find the world around them confusing and interactions with other people difficult.
Communication difficulties are common for all kids with autism spectrum disorder, they may also display obsessive, repetitive behaviours and can become anxious and distressed over changes in routines.
For parents of children with autism using visual strategies for improving communication skills as well as teaching Social Skills can be beneficial.
Predominantly visual learners and thinkers children with autism spectrum disorder respond better to visual information and supports like autism Social Skills Stories, P.E.C.S communication boards, flash cards, visual schedules and so on.
Using a visual strategy for kids with autism spectrum disorder will support and teach skills helping the child to understand friendship attend a birthday party or go to church.
Typically developing children will naturally learn social and communication skills from their parents, peers, teachers and those around them. This ability is missing in children with autism spectrum disorder this is due to social skills difficulties, which are always present in autism.
Visual strategies such as social stories are implemented easily and need no formal training to use. They can be edited, printed, personalized and are suitable for all ages and abilities.
Autism social skills stories break a skill or situation down into relevant social cues and answer the important “wh” questions – who, where, why, when and what as well as give an insight into the thoughts of those around them. The visual social skills story is always written in first person text from the autistic individual’s point of view and follows a specific pattern of four main sentence types.
Developed originally to support communication skills in autistic children, autism social skills stories are now probably one of the major autism tools used to help teach and support social, communication, imagination and sensory processing issues in autistic children.
Autism social skills stories act as a role model teaching specific skills and situations that the autistic child is struggling with, each visual social skills story can be used on its own or with other stories and is portable making them convenient to use.
Research suggests visual strategies for improving communication such as PECS, flash cards and autism social skills stories can be easily implemented and work.
To learn more about visual strategies such as social skills stories visit: http://www.autismsocialstories.com
