"Social Stories," pioneered by Carol Gray, use pictures of children and narratives to teach children socially appropriate behaviors.
Since Carol Gray trademarked "Social Stories" I use the term "Social Narrative" instead. I have found that the social narratives that you write with students, using their pictures, are especially powerful. Using their own faces will grab their attention. I have found even the most profoundly disabled child with autism will respond to his or her image. When you use their names, they begin to co-opt the narrative as their own, and start to conform to the narrative.
When you begin creating your social narratives, you need to start with an emotion that is easy to identify: angry, frustrated or excited.
Begin by asking students to tell you about something that makes them feel the emotion: we will use "angry." Make a list of the things your students identify as making them angry.
Use emotion flash cards to find faces of people that look angry and identify what they see on the faces that let them know the person is angry.
Model. Model. Model. Talking about the things that make you angry, and how that feels, as well as showing what your face looks like will help your students begin to understand what it means when we say we are "angry."
