The New Social Story Book : Illustrated Edition [Paperback]

Carol Gray (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2000 | ISBN-10: 188547766X | ISBN-13: 978-1885477668 | Edition: 2nd

Carol Gray offers a full 100 of her famous Social Stories, explaining what to do in everyday situations that spectrum children may find confusing. These simple, illustrated stories help them understand particular situations, what a child might do in that situation, and what the outcome might be. Sample stories include, "Can I hold the baby?"; "How to give a hug"; and "What am I supposed to do at recess?" Carol details how to write a Social Story, so you can tailor-make stories to fit your child's needs. Included are directions for reviewing a Social Story with others, which encourages generalization.

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Future Horizons; 2nd edition (September 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 188547766X
• ISBN-13: 978-1885477668
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #76,819 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #65 in Books > Parenting & Relationships > Special Needs > Disabilities

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

115 of 116 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars New Social Stories don't live up to the Original, August 13, 2001

By 

Karen L. Thomas (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Social Story Book : Illustrated Edition (Paperback)

I'm a speech language pathologist working with children with autism spectrum disorders. Access to good materials for social skills/pragmatics can be difficult to obtain, but Gray's Original Social Stories book was excellent! I work with children from kindergarten to middle school and this book meet many of my needs. This new edition, however, was more than disappointing. The stories weren't written well, the illustrations had little or no connection to the stories, and the stories were not relevant to the needs of children with disabilities. I returned the book and discovered that Ms. Gray had discontinued publication of the original book to promote this new edition. Ms. Gray, please re-release the original!!! I recommended it to many collegues and it's no longer available.

86 of 89 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Please stop simplifying autism, May 1, 2003

By 

fellicity (Orange County, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Social Story Book : Illustrated Edition (Paperback)

As either "this technique works, so it will work for everyone", or "it didn't work for those with whom I volunteered, so it must not work with anyone with autism". To say so is a MAJOR disservice to those for whom these techniques were designed to help, and creating some imaginary 'competition' between techniques negates the purpose of instituting multiple methodologies for the treatment and support of people with autism.

I think Baron-Cohen/Hill/Golan/Wheelwright's Mind Reading program looks like an exciting new technique to assist people with autism in understanding emotion, especially those who are either high-functioning or Aspie. But as someone who has spent the last several years working in the field of PDDs and Autistic Spectrum Disorders, I can tell you sincerely that Carol Gray's social stories are as necessary to our line of work as a calculator is to an accountant. I can also tell you that there is no ONE technique that is the end-all-be-all of autism support and treatment-- there are no hard and fast rules here as all people with autism are as different from each other as anyone else, and will all respond differently to various methodologies. Professionals, parents and caregivers know that to help a person with autism succeed, they must furnish them with many tools-- social stories being only one of these. But anyone who thinks that social stories are redundant or are too "touchy-feely" for any practical use has obviously not spent any quality time teaching people with autism to perform all of the day-to-day activities that you and I take for granted.

Simply put: social stories couldn't be more practical. Two of the defining characteristics of autism are difficulty perceiving social cues/functioning in social settings and a prevalence toward visual learning. Pairing a very visual setting (i.e. pictures of the social situation) with a breakdown of the social exchanges may help a person with autism see the target behavior more clearly than just "telling" him or her how to behave, or simply expecting them to know how to perform in social situations. Adding upon social stories with other techniques such as role-play, what-if scenarios, contingencies and options mapping can give very positive results. And one of the most rewarding results is the increased level of self confidence that emerges from knowing what to expect in social situations. Predictability in autism is everything, after all.

There is a great deal of information and "serious research" on the use of social stories available to anyone who is willing to look it up. Carol Gray's method has been with us for a long time, and for good reason-- it works.

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Covers all the basics!, April 8, 2002

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The New Social Story Book : Illustrated Edition (Paperback)

As the parent of an 8 year old with AS, I am constantly wondering if I am handling ALL the basic every day living skills. This book has it ALL! Social skills, interacting with people (community, school, and at home), and personal hygiene. The only chapter of the book, I felt didn't address the subject, was 11. My son had SO many questions as we read each story in that chapter. I guess that was good to some degree, we would then do some research to answer his questions. Some stories seemed so "common sense" when I first read them, but then I realized, what is common sense to me isn't common sense to a child with AS. I initially wanted to just quickly browse through this book when it arrived, but I found myself reading page after page for a little more than half an hour. My son and I are constantly picking up this book and going over stories together, even the ones he has already mastered. He enjoys the fact that he knows the answers, and every once in a while will add a tidbit. I find this book is great for the whole family to enjoy. This ia a must for any parent who has a child with AS.