Building Storytelling Ability with ABA

Telling stories is an important part of social interactions. Whether it’s long or short, stories play a number of roles in relationships — from recounting fond memories with friends, to establishing empathy and caring with new people, to explaining complex concepts in easier ways to coworkers.

From a very young age, children begin to tell stories. While these stories might be completely made up in their mind, they serve as the building blocks for effective storytelling in later years.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can often struggle to tell stories, though, due to the challenges they face with communication and social interaction.

Applied behavior analysis, or ABA therapy, is the gold standard of treatment options for children on the autism spectrum, and can help patients build these essential life skills.

Below, we’ll discuss building storytelling ability with ABA therapy.

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Why Do Children with ASD Struggle Telling Stories?

Two of the hallmark characteristics of autism are deficits in communication and social interactions. Children with autism may struggle with things such as non-verbal communication and feel anxious and overwhelmed in social situations.

This, naturally, would make storytelling more difficult for them. The way their brain functions and processes information may also cause them to have trouble telling a story from start to finish, in a chronological order that makes sense to other people.

With a diminished ability to tell stories and interact with their peers, children with autism may be ostracized and feel left out a lot. This might only add to their anxiety and feelings of being overwhelmed when with others.

As they grow older, a lack of storytelling skills may hamper them in their schoolwork, their career and their ability to gain and maintain meaningful relationships.

How Can ABA Therapy Help Children with ASD Build Storytelling Ability?

ABA therapy can take a structured approach to teaching storytelling skills that is catered specifically to the unique strengths, challenges and preference of each individual patient. In this way, the intervention can be much more effective, since it’s directly pertinent to each child.

A key concept of ABA therapy is taking complicated and complex tasks and breaking them down into smaller, more manageable steps. This enables therapists to teach each step individually, allowing the child to master each one before chaining it all together to form the entire skill.

At each step, therapists will integrate positive reinforcement to reward the child for successfully learning. This could be time with a toy they love, a token or extra praise — all of which is meant to not only reward the child but keep them engaged and motivated to learn more.

What Role Do Social Stories Play in Building Storytelling Ability?

Social stories play a crucial role in ABA therapy as a whole. Children with autism are considered to be visual learners, which means they process information better when they have visual aids accompany verbal or written instructions.

This is why social stories work so well. They are personalized stories that are created to specifically address the skills that are being worked on in ABA therapy.

The characters in the story are typically given the name of the child and other people in their life, so they can better relate to what’s being told. These short stories explain everything from routines, to how to achieve a goal, to what’s expected of them.

Social stories describe what’s happening in a particular situation, describing how other people might think or feel. They also suggest appropriate ways to behave or respond to situations, while also reinforcing the positive actions.

Children with autism are able to grasp concepts much easier through social stories, because they foster learning through visual stories that are personalized to them. The children can actually picture themselves in the story, which helps them understand what’s expected of them.

In this way, ABA therapists can create social stories that reinforce the storytelling skills they are teaching during sessions. It’s a great way to emphasize those skills in a practical and fun way that children can easily understand.

Blue Gems ABA Can Help Children with ASD Build Storytelling Ability

Children with autism may struggle with the ability to tell stories. This can make it harder for them to make friends, do well in school and build a successful career.

At Blue Gems ABA, our team of therapists works hard every day to help children with ASD build their storytelling ability. We do this through targeted interventions and social stories that are catered specifically to each child’s unique needs.

To learn more, please contact us today.