Gracie struggled terribly with change and with any variation in her schedule. Our trip down to the beach was nothing short of a nightmare. Flying on an airplane with three young children (one of them being an infant), two strollers, and three carseats is a challenge in and of itself. But when one of the three children won't walk on the floor, won't touch the railings, won't sit on the chairs, won't talk to anybody, and screams and cries the entire time it's quite simply a horrible experience. People just looked at us like we had no idea what we were doing. What on Earth was wrong with our middle daughter? That cute little blonde child was just plain out of control! When she wasn't acting out, she was worrying about what we were going to do. She would ask the same questions over and over and over again. What were we doing? What was next? Where were we going? It was never ending.
The day that we left for home I spent 5 minutes with Grace before we drove to the Airport. I pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil. I drew a crude drawing of a car with some stick people and I told her that was us getting into the car. Then I drew a building and told her that was the airport. I explained that there were lots and lots of people at the airport and so I drew lots of stick people there and we talked about how it would be busy and she might not like that. The people might bump into her. She might have to walk on the floor. There might be loud noises. Then I drew an airplane and we talked about how we would go in the airplane and what that would be like. I continued this process until I drew our house. Then I simply folded the paper in half and gave it to her to hold. We got in the car and drove to the airport. My sweet child held that piece of paper in her little hands the entire trip. She studied it. She clutched it to her chest. She asked me about it. But not once did she cry or scream. That is the magic of a picture schedule.
When we got home I decided to take the picture schedule to a new level. I made one for our house to use every day. Starting that very first day, Grace and I would sit every morning and arrange her schedule. This small act provided tremendous security for her. She would check her schedule throughout the day. I could see her eyes soften and a small weight lifted from her tiny shoulders each time she found the security she needed in her schedule.
Now a Social Story is used differently from a picture schedule. A Social Story is used to help children problem solve when they are "stuck". I am by no means an expert in using Social Stories. In fact, the examples I have here are very crude. However, they were highly effective in helping Grace both calm down and process.
One of Grace's most difficult areas was and has continued to be in the area of eating. After one particularly difficult dinner that ended in the usual screaming session and no eating we wrote this Social Story...
We began adding more and more Social Stories to our binder. Soon I let Gracie do the drawings on them. Here are some more examples...
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| She wanted the usual Honey Nut Cheerios for dinner... |
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| Here she wanted me to carry her down the stairs so she didn't have to touch the floor. |
These were the first small steps that we began to take together. These are strategies that people who work with autistic children use all the time. They work well for all types of children, but especially for ones with disorders that fall under the autism spectrum, OCD, and Sensory Processing Disorder. These were baby steps, always baby steps. But baby steps forward.
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