Using AI to Scale the Positive Benefits of Social Stories
Exemplar prompts and use-cases for leveraging AI to implement social stories.
In the rapidly evolving educational landscape, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into teaching and learning processes represents a frontier teeming with potential.
Social stories, an evidence-based method originally devised to support students with special needs, exemplify a nuanced intervention that has demonstrated efficacy in fostering social understanding and emotional regulation among young learners. These narrative-based tools, designed to elucidate the dynamics of social interactions and appropriate responses, offer a scaffold to navigate the complexities of social cues and environments.
However, the traditional approach to crafting and employing social stories—a labor-intensive process often bespoke to individual needs—poses challenges in scalability and accessibility. This is where AI can help us scale and enhance the creation, customization, and distribution of social stories, making them a more universally accessible resource across the K-12 spectrum.
Social Stories: An Overview
Social stories is an intervention that involves a written description of the situations under which specific behaviors are expected to occur. In short, it describes (via visually represented stories or scripts) situations or skills in terms of relevant social cues. Social stories are primarily used for teaching student’s prosocial behaviors and healthy routines to help them navigate situations that might be challenging, new, or anxiety-provoking.
The Role of Social Stories in Social-Emotional Skill-Building
Social stories serve as a bridge for children who encounter challenges in processing and interpreting social information, a common issue not only among students with special educational needs but also in the broader student population. The goal of is to teach students about the “who, what, when, where, and why” of social interactions in order to improve social awareness, perspective-taking, peer relationships, and self-management skills.
By delineating social situations, anticipated actions, and potential emotional reactions, social stories demystify social norms and expectations, fostering a sense of preparedness and confidence. This strategy aligns with the core principles of SEL, aiming to equip students with the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.
Step-by-Step Instructions for How to Implement the Social Stories Intervention
Select (or write) a social story that is developmentally appropriate for the student and matches their needs or context.
Tell the student that you want to share a story with them. Explain that you helped write the story and that it focuses on specific situations that you’ve seen the student encounter at school.
Review the social story in-depth with the student. Be sure to provide space for the student to process and ask questions.
Before the next time the student is asked to perform the routine/procedure/activity or encounter the situation that is the focus of the story, briefly review the social story with them. When you’re first getting started, it’s important to review the story on a daily basis.
Monitor the student’s progress and positively reinforce their prosocial interactions, calming strategies, or other behaviors outlined in the story.
When You Might Use This Strategy:
Consider implementing the social stories intervention with a student who is experiencing challenges when it comes to social interactions, routines, and expectations (e.g., walking down the hall, following the lunch procedure, etc.) or when a student needs reinforcement of other class norms.
After the student has reviewed and learned the social story, you can have them review it on their own each day or week.
Implementation Tips:
The development (or sourcing) of social stories should place a central focus on stories that are framed positively. The stories are not meant to be judgmental or strongly directive.
If you are writing a social story, ask other teachers to review it before sharing it with a student. Ask the reviewer to consider: the purpose of the story, the level of language used, the processing demands of the story, the presence of a positive message, and the plan for implementation.
Many teachers enlist the help of the student in generating ideas for a social story.
AI as a Catalyst for Social Story Innovation
AI's integration into the educational toolkit offers a transformative potential for social stories, particularly in their customization and application. This technological advancement can address the dual challenges of scale and personalization through:
Efficient and Personalized Customization: AI can rapidly generate or adapt social stories based on individual learner profiles, including their interests, learning needs, and the specific social scenarios they find challenging. This efficiency enables educators to provide personalized support on an unprecedented scale and ensure (through prompt engineering – more on this below) that the social stories shared with students are framed positively.
Interactive and Engaging Content: Beyond static narratives, AI can weave interactive elements into social stories, such as decision points, feedback loops, and gamified learning activities. This interactivity not only enhances engagement but also deepens the learning impact by simulating real-world social interactions.
Data-Driven Insights for Continuous Improvement: AI tools can collect and analyze data on how students interact with social stories, providing educators with insights into engagement levels, comprehension, and behavioral changes. This feedback loop is invaluable for refining content and teaching strategies to better meet students' needs.
Accessibility and Reach: With AI, social stories can be disseminated widely, breaking barriers of time and resource constraints. This democratizes access to effective SEL interventions, ensuring that every student benefits from tailored support.
Exemplar Prompts for Generating Personalized and Asset-Based Social Stories
ChatGPT is an excellent tool for creating social stories tailored to the specific circumstances. Consider the following:
Craft a story centered on a high school senior involved in a verbal disagreement during class, leading to a disruption. Detail how this student successfully resolves the conflict with their peer. Ensure the narrative is suitable for a 10th-grade reading level, with a total length of approximately 1,000 words. Ensure that the story is framed positively.
To embrace restorative practices, I consistently incorporate elements about "how the student remedied the situation" into the prompt. Additionally, I adjust the reading level and length according to the student's own reading proficiency.
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