Photo Credit: http://www.autismuk.com/?page_id=131
Social stories are en excellent example of the importance of our own internal narrative. “Social Stories” was developed by Carol Gray, a speech language pathologist to help children with autism how to learn social skills. Social stories are essentially scripts that teach the rules of how to engage in social situations. These stories work since the students review the stories on a daily basis so the social scripts become a part of their internal dialogue. The social stories are reviewed prior to the relevant event so the script can be practiced in a natural context. Families and teachers that use “Social Stories” report many success stories about how effective this strategy is in facilitating appropriate social skills.
If social scripting can work for people with Autism, it can work for us as well. We can write our own scripts on the beliefs, feelings and attititudes that we want to change. We can benefit from reading positive affirmations on a daily basis. We can reap rewards by writing and reviewing the goals that we wish to achieve. We can consciously change our perception of the present and change our internal dialogue as well.
