Social stories can be really helpful for all sorts of things. But it really depends the individual and what their strengths and needs are. I’ve worked with children with ASD and they’ve been great readers, but struggled with verbal communication and understanding social expectations. For them having a short focused ‘story’ that explained how to ask a question in class, or how to share with a friend, can be really helpful.

I’ve also seen them be effective with adults with learning difficulties. But often that’s more because it trains the carers and family members around them. Not only does it fix the language so that the same thing is explained the same way everytime, and in appropriate language, but the process of writing the story and trying to articulate a piece of advice into concrete simple language can help ‘normal’ people realise how complex the ‘simple rule’ they want to communicate actually is. “don’t talk to strangers” is the sort of advice people give, but what’s a stranger, how does someone become ‘known’, what about a police officer? Or even a waiter?