March 24, 2025

Do Social Stories Really Work?

⭐️ Join the School for School Counselors Mastermind today to become the school counselor you were meant to be. ⭐️

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You’ve been asked to read a Social Story to a student—again.

And if you're being honest… you’re not sure it’s actually doing anything.

In this episode, we’re taking a closer look at the research behind Social Stories:

Where they came from and what they were actually designed to do
What the peer-reviewed literature says about their effectiveness (and what it doesn’t)
How they can support emotional regulation... if you use them the right way
The time frame for change (hint: it’s slower than you think)
What to say when someone insists you “just need a social story”

Plus, you’ll get practical guidance on when and how to use Social Stories, and a free downloadable cheat sheet to help you back up your decisions with confidence.

If you’ve ever wondered, “Is it me… or is it the tool?”—this episode is for you.

Bonus: Grab the printable Social Stories resource pdf here

00:00 The Social Story Dilemma

01:49 Origins and Purpose of Social Stories

03:08 Research Findings on Social Stories

09:02 Emotional Regulation and Social Stories

11:44 Practical Advice for School Counselors

21:20 Conclusion and Resources

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Chapters

00:00 - Introduction to Social Stories

03:18 - Origins and Intended Purpose

06:23 - What the Research Actually Shows

11:36 - Social Stories and Emotional Regulation

13:53 - Practical Application for School Counselors

18:36 - Timeline for Results and Limitations

22:46 - Conclusion and Resource Announcement

Transcript

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00:00:00.059 --> 00:00:08.864
You know that moment when a teacher stops by your office and they say I have a kid that cannot follow directions.

00:00:08.864 --> 00:00:12.132
Do you have a social story you could read to them?

00:00:12.132 --> 00:00:28.420
And your first instinct probably is to open up a Google Doc or head to some sort of website and start searching for a social story that looks cute and gets close to what the situation at hand might be.

00:00:28.420 --> 00:00:33.351
I know that you do that because we have all been there.

00:00:33.351 --> 00:00:46.636
But today I want to ask a little bit bigger question what is a social story really supposed to be and, more importantly, do they even work?

00:00:46.636 --> 00:00:53.091
In this episode we are going to talk real world about social stories.

00:00:53.091 --> 00:01:10.769
They've been sold to us as the holy grail of behavior intervention, and so we're going to talk about where did the idea of social stories come from, how are they supposed to work and what does the peer-reviewed literature say about them.

00:01:10.769 --> 00:01:18.293
And then, after we get done with all that, we're going to talk about whether or not you should be using them as a school counselor.

00:01:18.293 --> 00:01:22.262
Welcome back to the School for School Counselors podcast.

00:01:22.262 --> 00:01:31.647
I'm Steph Johnson, a full-time school counselor just like you, so excited to welcome you back for another episode of the podcast.

00:01:31.647 --> 00:01:45.436
I strive each and every week to bring you the best in school counseling information to inspire your growth and help you feel more capable, more confident and more competent in your work.

00:01:45.436 --> 00:01:49.623
So let's get back to social stories.

00:01:49.623 --> 00:01:52.769
What is a social story really?

00:01:53.731 --> 00:01:57.840
The idea of social stories came around in the early 90s.

00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:06.500
A woman named Carol Gray decided that it would be a good idea to present these stories to promote social understanding.

00:02:06.500 --> 00:02:25.373
Now, make a point of that, because it wasn't to control or to influence behavior, it was to build social understanding and originally these stories were designed for students with pervasive developmental delays or with autism.

00:02:25.373 --> 00:02:39.847
These stories are supposed to describe specific situations from the student's point of view and theoretically they have a prescribed ratio of certain kinds of sentences.

00:02:39.847 --> 00:02:41.709
They have descriptive.

00:02:41.709 --> 00:02:47.855
They have descriptive perspective and directive sentences in a controlled ratio.

00:02:47.855 --> 00:03:01.014
They were originally designed to help decode social cues for kids that had difficulty understanding those and were never meant to be lectures or consequences.

00:03:01.014 --> 00:03:06.872
Social stories were developed to prepare and to reassure.

00:03:08.415 --> 00:03:12.405
So what does the research say about social stories?

00:03:12.405 --> 00:03:23.442
Because if you work anywhere, like where I work, people come up with this grand idea pretty often that hey, we just we need to get them a social story that should take care of it.

00:03:23.442 --> 00:03:26.330
Have you been in that situation?

00:03:26.330 --> 00:03:28.447
I bet you know what I'm talking about.

00:03:28.447 --> 00:03:31.268
What does the research say?

00:03:31.268 --> 00:03:32.823
Now let me tell you.

00:03:32.963 --> 00:03:45.870
I got interested in this because, again, I keep getting asked to present these social stories, and I would do so with fidelity, and I really would never see the needle move.

00:03:45.870 --> 00:03:52.092
Much as a matter of fact, I've often had my social stories crumpled up and thrown at me.

00:03:52.092 --> 00:04:01.072
If I'm being real, that's usually how those end up and so I started thinking is it me or is it the tool?

00:04:01.072 --> 00:04:03.729
And so I wanted to dive in and learn more.

00:04:03.729 --> 00:04:08.243
The tool, and so I wanted to dive in and learn more.

00:04:08.243 --> 00:04:21.923
Then this past week, as I was enjoying spring break at home, scrolling social media, seeing what was going on in the school counseling world, I ran across a post talking about a school counselor who had been mandated to provide social stories to a student.

00:04:21.923 --> 00:04:49.463
And I thought you know, with all of the talk this month on the podcast about behavior intervention and as often as we are asked to provide these social stories, they're worth looking into Because, like it or not, we are being asked more and more throughout our country to provide longer-term counseling or IEP-mandated counseling, which comes through special education.

00:04:50.326 --> 00:04:52.309
Is that an ideal situation?

00:04:52.309 --> 00:04:54.072
No, it is not.

00:04:54.072 --> 00:05:01.333
However, we also know that we need our paychecks and we are paid to follow directions.

00:05:01.333 --> 00:05:17.425
So you will never see me give this aspirational information, this perfect world scenario, and, just because you are not supposed to be doing longer-term counseling, just completely ignoring that aspect of your job.

00:05:17.425 --> 00:05:20.452
I think that's where we've gone wrong in school counseling.

00:05:20.452 --> 00:05:35.209
Instead, I want to be real and honest with you about some of the things that you're being asked to do, and this longer term counseling, iep mandated counseling and social stories, just to name a few, are going to be things that are going to be part of your world.

00:05:35.209 --> 00:05:41.370
If not now, I can almost guarantee you're going to see it in the future, and I always want to be informed.

00:05:41.370 --> 00:05:45.771
I always want to know if what I'm doing has an evidence base behind it.

00:05:45.771 --> 00:05:48.389
Is the research base sound?

00:05:48.389 --> 00:06:07.062
As a matter of fact, we just released a new relational aggression school counselor playbook in our mastermind this weekend, and as you flip to the end of it, you see an entire page of references that were used in creating that playbook, because I believe very deeply in evidence-based work.

00:06:07.062 --> 00:06:09.107
So let's jump into it.

00:06:09.226 --> 00:06:13.254
Let's find out if social stories really make the cut.

00:06:13.254 --> 00:06:19.144
Let's start with Kokina and Kern 2010.

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They did a meta-analysis of 18 studies regarding social stories.

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Half of the studies showed results and half of them did not.

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They found the best outcomes were for verbal elementary age students, particularly when the story was read by the student.

00:06:43.088 --> 00:06:46.432
Now pause there for just a minute and think.

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Most often we're either asked to read these to or with the student, or we just sort of assume that it's our job to do that to facilitate the process.

00:06:58.324 --> 00:07:06.148
Right, but this study said hold that thought, maybe it's better if the students read them themselves.

00:07:06.148 --> 00:07:16.610
Then it introduces a problem because we have a lot of kids in our schools whose reading levels are either very, very low or they can't read independently at all.

00:07:16.610 --> 00:07:20.081
So keep this in mind as we're going through this research.

00:07:20.081 --> 00:07:29.653
So so far we have a 50-50 chance of this working, but only if the student is able to read it themselves.

00:07:30.675 --> 00:07:49.305
Moving on, reynout and Carter 2006, found that adherence to Carol Gray's sentence structures remember that ratio of those three different kinds of sentences she said were essential in good social stories yeah, that didn't always improve effectiveness.

00:07:49.305 --> 00:07:59.529
They also noted that there were very few studies that tracked the long-term effects or generalization of skills coming from social stories.

00:07:59.529 --> 00:08:23.327
Wayman and Team, 2022 showed that preschoolers who were presented with social stories had improved prosocial behavior, but challenging behavior reductions were not significant and overall they noted that the quality of research with that age group was very, very low.

00:08:23.327 --> 00:08:35.571
And Hagopian and Lowry 2020, showed that social stories with visuals were effective for students at risk for emotional or behavioral disorders.

00:08:35.571 --> 00:08:40.245
So we're really seeing some mixed effects here.

00:08:40.245 --> 00:08:52.658
But the biggest thing that I have taken away from this research so far is that there is no resounding evidence that these social stories are the home run that they've been made out to be.

00:08:52.658 --> 00:09:01.182
So I tell you what let's dig a little bit deeper into the research to get a little bit fuller story.

00:09:03.248 --> 00:09:09.298
What does the research say about social stories and emotional regulation?

00:09:09.298 --> 00:09:23.211
Nine times out of ten, when the school counselor is called to present a social story, it is either meant to be a procedural story or something meant to enhance emotional regulation.

00:09:23.211 --> 00:09:27.625
So how do these stories fit in with the emotional regulation piece?

00:09:27.625 --> 00:09:41.966
Evidence is telling us is that if social stories are used for their original intent of preparation and reassurance, they can help a little.

00:09:41.966 --> 00:09:54.562
So preparation would be things like preparing for an assembly there is a fire drill coming up those kinds of things where students become dysregulated because of a certain happening.

00:09:54.562 --> 00:10:00.500
If we can prepare them, social stories can be effective in those situations.

00:10:00.500 --> 00:10:06.321
Sometimes they're effective in helping reassure students throughout a process.

00:10:06.321 --> 00:10:10.568
What happens when you go visit the speech therapist?

00:10:10.568 --> 00:10:13.461
What does PE class look like?

00:10:13.461 --> 00:10:14.764
When you walk into the room?

00:10:14.764 --> 00:10:19.082
What's the first day of kindergarten going to feel like those kinds of things?

00:10:19.082 --> 00:10:23.999
If they're used for preparation and reassurance, they can help a little.

00:10:26.403 --> 00:10:37.688
Social stories have not been shown to promote coping skills directly, but they can reduce anxiety by making the situations feel more predictable.

00:10:37.688 --> 00:10:52.863
So we could potentially use them to preview anxiety-inducing situations or to normalize emotional responses and perhaps, maybe even to teach some safe responses.

00:10:52.863 --> 00:10:54.804
Maybe even to teach some safe responses.

00:10:54.804 --> 00:11:11.740
Coquina and Kern 2010, again showed mixed results, but also noted that some students benefited when emotional language was used in the social story and reinforcements were provided.

00:11:11.740 --> 00:11:20.370
So think of social stories as a tool for clarity and for reassurance, not for therapeutic intent.

00:11:20.370 --> 00:11:39.149
They're not going to build an emotional toolkit for a kid, they're not going to be that magic bullet that we're hoping to someday find for school counseling, but they can perhaps help students access their skills and tools.

00:11:40.576 --> 00:11:55.929
So, with all this mixed research, all these things up in the air, what do we do as school counselors if we have, potentially, an IEP committee that comes to us and says we would like to write in social stories for a student?

00:11:55.929 --> 00:12:05.158
Or, my goodness, even your principal or a teacher walks up to your door and says I need you to give this kid a social story.

00:12:05.158 --> 00:12:12.682
They're just not understanding what it is they're supposed to be doing or they just won't stop yelling out in class or whatever it is.

00:12:12.682 --> 00:12:30.600
We need to have our go-to, evidence-based response, because one of the most important powers that we have as school counselors is the ability to rationalize our approaches through the research.

00:12:30.600 --> 00:12:39.457
If we start just spouting off opinions about how we feel about social stories, that argument is going nowhere.

00:12:39.457 --> 00:12:59.066
But if we are able to provide a concise explanation of why we feel that this social story may not be the best tool for that student, we're going to be in a much better place to be able to bargain through it and provide some alternative ideas for supports.

00:12:59.066 --> 00:13:23.028
So if we decide to use social stories and, by the way, I'm going to have a printable for you with this podcast episode that is going to give you a concise summary of all of these research points so that if you're ever in this conversation, or you know it's coming, you'll be able to have the information that you need at your fingertips.

00:13:23.028 --> 00:13:36.967
I'm not trying to push you away from using social stories and I'm not trying to push you into using them, but I do want you to be equipped with the knowledge and the expertise to make your argument.

00:13:36.967 --> 00:13:38.389
Either way you choose.

00:13:40.515 --> 00:13:47.504
If we decide that a social story might be appropriate for a student, we need to make sure we do some of the following things.

00:13:47.504 --> 00:13:51.684
First, we have to personalize the story.

00:13:51.684 --> 00:14:05.759
The evidence base shows us that if we present a generic story that doesn't really connect with the student, it doesn't connect with their culture or their identity or their specific situation.

00:14:05.759 --> 00:14:07.864
It's not going to hit home.

00:14:07.864 --> 00:14:20.735
The story must be personalized, personalized.

00:14:20.735 --> 00:14:22.181
Second, the social story needs to be used before the behavior occurs.

00:14:22.181 --> 00:14:24.990
This is tricky because we can't always predict when those behaviors are going to pop up right.

00:14:24.990 --> 00:14:34.768
So we're going to have to be intentional about identifying the antecedents of the behavior so that we know when to step in with the social story.

00:14:34.768 --> 00:14:41.625
But that also presents another problem because that means we've got to be on call to provide this story.

00:14:41.625 --> 00:14:42.995
If it is going to be us.

00:14:44.839 --> 00:15:07.397
My recommendation would be if you feel a social story would be appropriate for a student, you also need to make the point that the social story needs to be delivered in real time, which means it should not be you Not, with all of the surprises that you get in your day, all of the unplanned things that go on on your campus.

00:15:07.397 --> 00:15:15.446
There is no way that you can be on call for a teacher to say hey, in two minutes we're transitioning to this thing, can you come read this social story?

00:15:15.446 --> 00:15:17.109
It's not realistic.

00:15:17.109 --> 00:15:24.725
Third, and supporting that argument, social stories need to be read with the student.

00:15:24.725 --> 00:15:29.475
If the student cannot read them to you, read them with the student.

00:15:29.475 --> 00:15:38.696
Fourth, it must contain visuals or videos if you have any hope of the content landing with this student.

00:15:38.696 --> 00:15:43.908
And fifth, of the content landing with this student.

00:15:43.908 --> 00:15:47.596
And fifth and this is the part we miss a lot in schools it needs to be paired with modeling and reinforcement.

00:15:47.596 --> 00:15:56.017
We cannot just read a social story and expect it to change this child's entire perspective on their school career.

00:15:56.017 --> 00:16:24.549
It's not going to happen If you choose to use social stories, I suggest you do it with a very strong teacher who is able to see when that student is becoming escalated or dysregulated so that they can step in, so they can provide that social story in real time and then follow it up with modeling and reinforcement time and then follow it up with modeling and reinforcement.

00:16:24.570 --> 00:16:30.288
That's a tall order on our school campuses, especially when we're talking about resources that statistically have not been proven to be effective.

00:16:30.288 --> 00:16:38.230
But again, if we choose to use these stories, we also have to make sure that we stay away from the don'ts.

00:16:38.230 --> 00:16:42.259
Don't use social stories as a punishment.

00:16:42.259 --> 00:16:46.791
I see that a lot and I hear about that a lot on school campuses.

00:16:46.791 --> 00:16:51.706
They can't keep their hands to themselves when they hit.

00:16:51.706 --> 00:16:53.510
We need to read this social story.

00:16:53.510 --> 00:16:58.450
It will not be effective if it's used as a punishment or after the fact.

00:17:00.095 --> 00:17:06.815
Second, we cannot pull random social stories and present them without reviewing and personalizing them.

00:17:06.815 --> 00:17:12.233
Again, the evidence base tells us that is not going to work.

00:17:12.233 --> 00:17:14.712
But how often do you see that?

00:17:14.712 --> 00:17:28.464
And, be honest, how often have you yourself hopped onto something like Teachers Pay Teachers, found the social story that seems to align the best with the situation, downloaded it and you were off to the races.

00:17:28.464 --> 00:17:41.920
I will admit I've done it before I get it, but it's not best practice and we also, with these social stories, cannot expect instant change.

00:17:41.920 --> 00:18:11.179
This is going to be incremental change, where again and I feel like I'm harping on this, but I just want to drive this point home If you take away nothing else from this episode, I want you to internalize the fact that these social stories have not been shown to promote statistically significant effects and even if they do bring around positive change, it is going to be slow.

00:18:11.179 --> 00:18:14.767
So you may be thinking all right, steph.

00:18:14.826 --> 00:18:20.058
Well, what is the expected timeline of change if we're using a social story?

00:18:20.058 --> 00:18:43.244
Is the expected timeline of change if we're using a social story If it is related to a behavior that is clearly defined, something ultra specific like staying in your seat or not pushing your classmates when you're lining up that are observable, they're measurable and those stories are read daily and consistently.

00:18:43.244 --> 00:18:55.148
You have a chance of seeing some improvement within two weeks, but it has to be addressed with fidelity for at least two weeks.

00:18:55.148 --> 00:19:11.740
Kokina and Kern's study showed that social story implementation did bring around some change, but most of that change was short-term, it did not last and did not generalize to other situations.

00:19:11.740 --> 00:19:29.926
Similarly, ray and Carter in 2006 found that a lot of students who were presented with social stories responded within five to ten intervention days which takes us back to that two school week time frame and all improvements were not maintained.

00:19:29.926 --> 00:19:48.997
And these researchers also found and noted that no one really has assessed long-term maintenance of skills through social stories in the literature, and those skills are not being shown to generalize to other situations.

00:19:48.997 --> 00:19:57.219
So we're not guaranteeing lasting change, even if we do see some change through using these social stories.

00:19:58.288 --> 00:20:19.768
This is the same argument that I've had for years about teachers pay, teachers resources and I know that I may be slaying a sacred cow for you, because that may be where you're getting a lot of your lessons and materials, but I really feel like if they were that great, surely somebody somewhere would be coming up with some data to support that.

00:20:19.768 --> 00:20:22.957
So far, none of our creators are doing that.

00:20:22.957 --> 00:20:26.855
And it's the same with social stories, all right.

00:20:26.855 --> 00:20:44.191
So I feel like I'm really dogging on these, but I just wanted to present to you what the peer-reviewed literature says, not what the behaviorist down the hallway says, not what your school psych believes, not what the common ideation the hallway says not what your school psych believes, not what the common ideation on your campus might be.

00:20:44.191 --> 00:20:48.439
What does the literature actually say about social stories?

00:20:49.625 --> 00:20:51.809
Social stories are meh.

00:20:51.809 --> 00:20:54.556
They might help, they might not.

00:20:54.556 --> 00:20:57.828
If they're going to help, there are a lot of constraints.

00:20:57.828 --> 00:21:07.997
There are a lot of expectations that have to be built into that for it to be successful and even then you've only got probably a 50-50 shot at best.

00:21:07.997 --> 00:21:13.276
My opinion I will not be pushing for social stories on my campus.

00:21:13.276 --> 00:21:20.855
I think we can access a lot more effective tools in our work than reading a story that may or may not work.

00:21:20.855 --> 00:21:22.486
I just don't see the benefit.

00:21:22.486 --> 00:21:31.351
But again, I want to leave this literature in your lap so that you can make the best decision for your campus and for your students.

00:21:33.273 --> 00:21:40.053
If you want that cheat sheet of social story literature, you can check the show notes of this episode.

00:21:40.053 --> 00:21:43.631
There will be a link right there for you to go download that sheet and have it.

00:21:43.631 --> 00:22:00.490
You can keep it on your hard drive or in your file cabinet forever, so you will be prepared and not feel like you are caught in a corner the next time someone comes and suggests that you provide a social story for a student and I hope that was helpful to you.

00:22:00.490 --> 00:22:12.971
You know, everything that I do in School for School Counselors is designed to elevate not only your practice of school counseling but the way that you feel about your work.

00:22:12.971 --> 00:22:18.230
I don't ever want you feeling like you're caught, like you don't know how to address an issue.

00:22:18.230 --> 00:22:26.698
You have that little niggle in the back of your mind that says I don't feel like that's the best idea, but I really can't explain why in the moment.

00:22:26.698 --> 00:22:33.746
To me that's one of the worst feelings in the world and that's why I do what I do each and every day.

00:22:34.848 --> 00:22:45.119
This is an exciting time because we're just wrapping up the month of March, as I'm recording, and we've had some amazing things going on in our School for School Counselors Mastermind.

00:22:45.119 --> 00:22:57.830
We've held a behavior intervention masterclass which totally blew everybody's minds because we introduced a new behavior decision-making framework for next steps for behavior.

00:22:57.830 --> 00:23:02.497
So you don't feel like you're just grasping at straws trying to figure out what to do next with this kid.

00:23:02.497 --> 00:23:16.667
We also introduced a decision tree for determining whether behavior is really dysregulation or whether it's defiance, because, be honest, you've wondered that a time or two, haven't you?

00:23:16.667 --> 00:23:21.096
We've looked at our use of time data on our campuses.

00:23:21.096 --> 00:23:28.178
We've begun preparing for end of year data stories so that we can advocate effectively and confidently for our programs.

00:23:28.178 --> 00:23:39.852
We've held weekly support and consultation chats and we've just introduced a new AI bot into our mastermind that we're testing right now.

00:23:39.852 --> 00:23:52.534
Might be able to tell you a little bit more about it in the months to come, and you know how I feel about AI, so you know we're being very, very careful with this, but we also don't want to be left behind.

00:23:52.534 --> 00:23:55.307
So we're doing all of these things right now.

00:23:55.307 --> 00:23:56.608
In our mastermind.

00:23:57.089 --> 00:24:02.019
Our members have access to each and every resource I just described in an April.

00:24:02.019 --> 00:24:04.829
It's only going to get better.

00:24:04.829 --> 00:24:11.531
Where we're shifting our focus from behavior and we're looking at ADHD supports and interventions.

00:24:11.531 --> 00:24:21.276
What are some ways we can really effectively help these students who have so much trouble with impulse control or with concentration.

00:24:21.276 --> 00:24:32.155
Those are really really difficult interventions, and executive function, I think, is kind of hard to work into because, again, you feel like you're just shooting towards these moving targets.

00:24:32.155 --> 00:24:51.825
We're going to talk through all of that in our April Mastermind Masterclass, in addition to our weekly support and consultation, our data discussions, our new Saturday morning coffee chats and a bonus session I'm going to be doing about professional stamina Y'all.

00:24:51.986 --> 00:24:58.679
Nobody else in the school counseling world is providing this level of support, especially at this price point.

00:24:58.679 --> 00:25:03.268
$32 a month will get your seat in the School for School Counselors Mastermind.

00:25:03.268 --> 00:25:08.167
We have to charge to keep everything running because there's a lot of awesome stuff going on in there.

00:25:08.167 --> 00:25:18.268
But if you think this is the place for you and I promise you we can help you end the year strong, head over to the website to get more information schoolforschoolcounselorscom.

00:25:18.268 --> 00:25:19.932
Slash mastermind.

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All right, keep fighting the good fight.

00:25:23.558 --> 00:25:33.976
Go print out that social stories evidence-based sheet so you have it when you need it, and I will be back soon with another episode of the School for School Counselors podcast.

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Take care, my friend.

Do Social Stories Really Work?

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