For his 13th birthday, Logan received his own cell phone. We had previously used social stories to work on phone conversations so we thought we were good to go on how to use a phone successfully. Boy, were we really wrong.
Logan was practicing independence by going on outings with our church youth group. It made me feel better that if needed, he could call on his own without waiting for someone to help him. It came in handy when out on a scavenger hunt, the van driver was making Logan motion sick with his too fast and often turns. I talked Logan through telling the driver he was about to puke. The guy didn’t listen and Logan puked all over his van. When they quickly returned to church, I already knew what was going on and didn’t need to hear it from other perspectives. I could attend to Logan immediately,
It became apparent really fast that we had a problem though. A serious problem that needed a plan of action ASAP. When Logan used his phone, he used the scenario that he had learned in social skills group years ago. He went through the steps like clockwork. The problem came when someone deviated from the scenario.
Logan looked like a deer caught in the headlights. He simply didn’t know what to do with himself. Since he didn’t know what to do, he shut down. As in, said nothing. Not a word. He waited for the person to answer how he was taught in the social story. It was horrid. He couldn’t problem solve any other scenario than the one in the story.
I should have seen this coming. We had encountered a similar problem before with introductions. We read the social story on how to introduce yourself and what not. This was all well and good until the other person decides to answer differently .
When Logan was younger, he would have a meltdown because he didn’t know what to do. I remember working on that for what seemed like forever. Finally, after practicing it for what seemed like years with many silly answers, he became comfortable enough to be ok no matter how the other person answered.
This is one of those times when grandparents come in handy. I enlisted both sets of grandmothersto call or be called by Logan. This worked out well since they weren’t aware of the social story. Since they didn’t know how Logan was expecting them to answer, they always answered differently.
I must admit that I didn’t tell them why at first other than Logan needed the practice. They heard a lot of me in the background telling him how to answer. This did cause some waves with a certain grandmother who thought I was being a helicopter mom but it helped Logan. Logan’s success is paramount.
Micheal and I randomly called him for no reason for no purpose. Eventually, he got better at it and was able to function relatively properly on the phone. A year later, he is a walking, talking, texting machine. He has the phone down pat now.
I wouldn’t do social stories exclusively again for Logan. Maybe to introduce a new situation but definitely not in a rigid format as in I say this then you say that. It’s not worth in in my opinion. You have to practice it in different scenarios.
We are teaching our autistic kids to function in a fluid typical environment. We are setting them up for failure when the response in not what they practiced. Keep that in mind before you rely solely on social stories to teach skills. It is a great tool in your social skills toolbox but has to be done in conjunction with not as the end all.
Nothing is easy in Autismland.
