Christmas Social Story

Download the first in a series of FREE Festive Visual Guides that will be available for parents of Autistic children in the run up to Christmas. My sons Conor and Jack are both Autistic and Jack in particular struggles with anxiety. 

Often on Christmas morning in the past he can become overwhelmed. He is so excited to see what Santa has brought but is so overwhelmed with the build up to Christmas and then the idea that Santa has arrived while he is asleep at night, it can all be too much to process.

Jack is a hyperphant and learns more easily visually. He needs structure and routine to help his world make sense to him. To support him in a strength focused manner, I look at his visually processing strengths as a manner in which I can support him best. As a result I have designed a series of festive visual resources to support my gorgeous Jack. I have made these resources available for FREE for you to support your family or Autistic students.

Free Christmas Story

I will be creating a series of visual guides for Jack which will be available for FREE here on the website for parents of Autistic children.  

FREE Christmas Social Story Part 1

Today’s Social Story will focus on:

1. Children being off school for Christmas
2. Writing a letter to Santa
3. Putting up the Tree and Decorations
4. Opening/Not Opening Presents
5. Give/Receive Gifts
6. What to do when you don’t like your gift or already have the same gift
7. Christmas Eve activity 
8. Staying in bed 
9. Opening Presents

WHAT YOU NEED: 

1. Printer
2. Laminator & Pouches
3. Scissors
4. Stapler/Binder/Whole Punch/Fastners

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:

1. Print/laminate each A4 sheet of the social story
2. Once laminated cut each A4 Sheet in two, using the central black line as a guide. You will note that each A4 sheet essentially houses two pages of your social story. 
3. When laminated and cut, you should have 10 half sheets
4. Use your chosen way to bind the sheets together. I have given some examples of different tools you can choose to use.
5. I have created the pages in such a way that you can omit or include pages as they apply to your child. Not every child will need to be reminded we don’t say to others who give gifts that we don’t like the presents etc so if it doesnt apply to your child you could omit that page.  

With Jack, I will read through this Social Story every day from the 1st of December so by the time school finishes up he will have an excellent concrete understanding of what will happen over Christmas and when he will go back to school etc. 

You can download your FREE Social Story here.

I really hope this Visual Guide is helpful for your child. 

As mentioned in this FREE Christmas Social Story, you can use a Countdown Calendar to help your child understand from a time management perspective when Christmas falls and also when it is back to school time. You can find more information about that here.