Social Story

[airial95]

We just started working with a new behavior therapist for my 2 1/2 year old son with PANDAS. Our biggest issues are with the OCD, and even during his good periods (he's at about 70-80% 7 months into long term abx) we still have a lot of residual OCD. (honestly, my husband and I still give into the rituals, have no idea if we still need to, but we're terrified of the alternative if we don't...so we're definately part of the problem!!)

 

Anyway, the new therapists have explained to us that because of my son's age, a lot of the standard OCD treatments for children won't work as well since he's so young. So they'll have to use other techniques, and they'll be "retraining" us and our responses as well.

 

They're starting with his breakfast rituals (which can last anywhere from 30 - 60 minutes depending on his anxiety level) which always make me super late for work! They've written something called a "social story", included lot's of pictures of my son and our family basically telling the "story" of how he should behave at breakfast (wash his hands, let mommy pour the milk, it's okay if others open doors for you, give mommy 1 hug and 1 kiss from your seat - as opposed to walking me to the door, giving several hugs and kisses and 5 "superhugs" where he runs from a distance and tackles me to the ground with hugs - and yes, it's always 5 - everything is always 5)

 

It's super cute, they did it in power point, but I'm going to take it to the print shop and actually get it created into a real hardcover book. We're supposed to read it to him every day for a few weeks (we'll get the detailed instructions at our meeting on Friday) before we actually start pulling things out of his rituals. I don't know how well it will work, since we just got it today, but considering my son has all of his favorite books memorized and is starting to read - it may be promising.

 

I mention it because it's a cool technique that might work with other folks that have little ones! I don't think I can attach it here, but if anyone is interested PM me and I'll email it to you.

[ajcire]

I used social stories all the time at work.... I used to teach children with autism and we found that it really helped some of them out a lot. I used a program that my district let me purchase but can't remember the name of it now. I didn't check this out so don't know how good or useful it is but it looked interesting and free.. http://www.adders.org/socialstories.htm

[peglem]

Carol Gray is the person who invented the idea of social stories- her website is here:

http://thegraycenter.org/social-stories

 

I did a 1 day workshop w/ her a year or 2 back and love the idea, but I suck at writing social stories! It is exactly what my daughter needs, though.

 

Sounds like you have a great therapist!

[MichaelTampa]

sounds like a cool idea