Rachel Vestri Dr.

Winchester EDUC 417 9/9/13

Social Stories: Student Profile/Description C is an affectionate and friendly little boy. He is very curious and loves being active. At six years of age, he is independent in his adaptive behaviors. He responds best to concrete examples and thrives most in structured, consistent, environments. C attended preschool prior to attending kindergarten and seemed to be progressing well. However, upon completion of preschool, his teachers informed his parents that C had been showing signs of Autism Spectrum Disorder throughout the year. Due to these suspicions, C has been closely monitored in kindergarten and has been referred for PST. C consistently struggles staying on-task and transitioning from one activity to another. C is nervous about new environments and unfamiliar things. He needs lots of encouragement and reassurance. Transitioning to kindergarten has been difficult for him. Although he is typically is able to sit quietly, he struggles focusing on what the teacher is saying and rarely follows through with directions without plenty of individual reminders. When transitions occur, C is usually the last to follow directions. He is easily distracted and seems unaware of his surroundings during these transitions. After completing an official observation over a thirty-minute period of time, it was determined that C was only attending and on-task for only 40% of the time. He struggles immensely with retaining instructions, especially when delivered in sequence or steps. Providing C with a

warning or heads-up seems to help him better anticipate and prepare for these transitions, however he consistently is unable to pull himself away from a task and transition to the next activity without multiple reminders. Providing C with a social story that explains in concrete terms what it looks like to be engaged may be beneficial. I n addition providing him with a schedule may help him to better anticipate transitions and become more prepared and on task. C is a bright boy who, when given the right help, will hopefully be a very successful learner.

Social Story: Staying On Task *This social story was completed and implemented at Oak Mountain Elementary with a selected student. The following is a picture of the exact social story that was created and used with the student.

Rachel Vestri Dr. Winchester EDUC 417 9/18/13 Social Story: Implementation Throughout the process of conducting observations of student C in his classroom setting, it was evident that his greatest area of need was his ability to attend and stay on task during transitions and teacher directed activities. Whether it was in a small group setting, at his desk, or during whole group instruction, C struggled focusing, following directions, and remaining on task. After consulting with the special education teacher regarding this students apparent needs, it was determined that the best course of action for C would be to create a social story that helped explain to him exactly what it looks like to be on task. Thus, I created a social story that explained, in concrete and direct terms, exactly what being on task means. Because this student responds better to concrete and direct ideas, I made sure to create clear word pictures that stated exactly what it would look like if C were on task and following directions. I made sure to explain what on task looks like in different settings and circumstances and included correlating board maker pictures to make ensure that C would be able to effectively visualize being on task throughout his different daily activities. To begin implementing this social story, I pulled C aside and took him into the hallway. This eliminated distractions and gave me the opportunity to have Cs full attention. I then told him that we would be working on learning to be on task.

I read him the social story and made sure to show him each picture as I read. C seemed receptive to the social story and even asked related questions and made gestures that imitated each picture. We then spent some time discussing different examples and non-examples of being on task. After this, I returned C to the classroom. I observed him throughout his activities and occasionally made gestures imitating the pictures from the social story. I did this to help remind him to be on task and hopefully queue mental reminders of what that behavior should look like. Over the course of the next few weeks, I continued rereading the social story with C and worked on using it to hopefully improve his ability to stay on task.

Rachel Vestri Dr. Winchester EDUC 417 9/24/13 Social Story: Reflection When I first met student C, attending to tasks and transitioning were two of his biggest areas of struggle. Throughout observing him, prior to implementing a social story, this child was on task for about 40% of the time during class. In addition, he rarely displayed a clear understanding about the tasks in which he was participating and struggled following and attending to simple instructions during transitions. It was through observing this behavior that it became apparent that this child needed significant help in this area. As a result, I began implementing a social story that focused on what on task behavior looks like in the classroom setting. Immediately after reading the story with the student, he showed signs of improvement. For the first time that week, the student sat down for whole group instruction, raised his hand at an appropriate time, and correctly answered the teachers question. He was on task, and following directions. The continued use of the social story throughout my time with student C seemed to show similar results. In addition, I developed a set of gestures that imitated the Board Maker pictures from his social story. As I observed the student and assisted him during class, I used these gestures as a way of reminding him of his goal. The combination of the social story, and the reminders, seemed to help the student gain a heightened awareness as to how well he was attending to tasks. He continued to improve in his ability to be

on task and showed an increase in percentage of time in which he was actually attending to a task. This went from 40% to approximately 60% over the course of two weeks. These results seem to support the effectiveness of the social story for this particular student. Throughout the process I was able to learn valuable skills related to helping a student improve in an area of need. If I had the chance to do further work with the student, I believe I would begin to slowly lessen the use of gestures and see if the student could begin self monitoring his attentiveness more independently. Overall, however I felt as though the social story was effective and beneficial in helping this student begin making advances towards becoming a more on task student.