Social Stories 101
The individual who developed Social Stories to help individuals understand social situations and experiences.
Who is Carol Gray?
This is what the letters SCERTS stand for.
What are Social Communication, Emotional Regulation, and Transactional Support?
A child becomes anxious before visiting the dentist. This intervention could help prepare them by explaining what to expect.
What is a social story?
A child has difficulty communicating with peers and managing their emotions. This framework may be a good fit.
What is SCERTS?
Social Stories can be presented in these two formats to support an individual's understanding.
What are written and visual formats?
These are the three communication stages identified within the SCERTS framework.
What are Social Partner, Language Partner, and Conversational Partner?
These individuals are important collaborators in implementing SCERTS consistently across home, school, and community settings.
Who are family members, educators, therapists, and other communication partners?
SCERTS can be difficult for families to implement because it requires these from everyone involved.
What are ongoing collaboration, time, and support?
These are two skills or behaviors that Social Stories may be used to target.
What are social skills, safety skills, or challenging behaviors? (just need 2)
This component of SCERTS focuses on modifying the environment and providing support from communication partners to facilitate learning and participation.
What is Transactional Support?
A child continues pinching peers despite using a Social Story. What should the clinician evaluate before modifying the intervention?
Does the child understand the story and is it being used consistently across all settings?
A child frequently struggles with transitions and becomes upset when routines change. Why might a Social Story be appropriate?
What is helping children understand unfamiliar situations, prepare for changes, and know what to expect?
Social Stories may be especially helpful for children who have difficulty understanding these two aspects of everyday experiences.
What are social situations and routines?
This assessment process uses observations across natural environments to identify functional communication, regulation needs, and appropriate supports.
What is the SCERTS Assessment Process (SAP)?
A child demonstrates improvement after using a Social Story at home but continues struggling at school. What should the clinician recommend?
What does collaborating with caregivers and teachers look like to implement the Social Story across settings consistently?
Before recommending SCERTS, clinicians should consider these factors to avoid overwhelming families.
What are family capacity, available resources, and priorities?
(Wright et al., 2025) found that Social Stories improved individualized social-emotional goals but did not significantly improve this broader area at six months.
What is social responsiveness?
Within the Social Communication component of SCERTS, these are the two primary developmental domains targeted.
What are Joint Attention and Symbol Use?
A student is not making progress toward their SCERTS goals. What should the team review before changing the intervention?
What is Implementation fidelity, AAC and visual support access, Goal relevance, and Sensory and regulation needs (any one of these)
Before recommending a Social Story, clinicians should consider these factors to ensure the intervention is appropriate for the child.
What are the child's communication abilities, individual needs, and targeted goals?