Making new friends and maintaining existing friendships can be a challenge for some children, particularly those who have difficulty interacting in social settings. Teaching your child or student about the different types of friendships and relationships they may have throughout their life can help them build social awareness.
In the social story templates our educational consultants have prepared, your child or student can learn about a variety of topics around friendships. Some of these topics include: appropriate behaviors friends should exhibit towards each other, how to be there for your friend if they are having a bad day, and ways to know if someone is your friend.
If you don’t see a topic that fits your child or student’s situation, you can build your own social story! Be sure that it’s written from your child’s perspective and feel free to use pictures, special interest areas (such as a favorite cartoon character or superhero), or visual symbols to tell the story and set the expectation for appropriate behaviors.
Check out our social story templates about making and maintaining friendships and try one today!
The special education resources on this page were authored by Watson Institute’s special education consultants and faculty.
These behavior stories may benefit your students. They can be downloaded, saved and edited to suit your needs. The * notation indicates the story is formatted in a Power Point presentation and the ** notation indicates a Power Point with sound narration. Each Power Point has animation included on each slide. Some occur automatically – some occur on a “click”. Feel free to send comments or questions to [email protected].
A Boss is a Boss and Not a Friend
How to Talk to My Friends – (behaviors of concern: touching, sticking out tongue)
How to Talk to My Friends – (behavior of concern: touching hair)
My Friend is Having a Rough Day
Superflex and Spider Man Can Help Me (Topic-talk nice and hands to self) (Interest Area Spider Man) (Characters based on Madrigal & Garcia Winner)
Connecting with People (Elementary level; Behavior of concern: ignoring others; Special Interest Area: George Lucas)
If you have questions or concerns about the Watson Institute’s use of this information, please contact us.