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of 7— Understand what makes a good social story
What you'll accomplish
By the end of this guide, you'll have a library of custom social stories for your most common student challenges — fire drills, cafeteria transitions, peer conflicts, assembly behavior — each written to your specific students' comprehension levels. You'll generate 10 social stories in an hour that would have taken 10 hours to write by hand.
What you'll need
- A ChatGPT account (free at chatgpt.com)
- A Google Doc or folder to save your social story library
- Time needed: 30 minutes for your first library session
- Cost: Free (ChatGPT free tier is sufficient)
How-To Guide: Build a Social Story Library with ChatGPT
Step 1: Understand what makes a good social story
Social stories were developed by Carol Gray for students with autism. They follow a specific structure:
- Descriptive sentences — What happens in the situation ("At lunch, I wait in line with my class.")
- Perspective sentences — How others feel ("My teacher feels happy when I wait quietly.")
- Directive sentences — What the student will do ("I can practice being patient by counting to 10.")
- Written in first person, present tense ("I can...", "I will...", "My teacher...")
- Positive framing — What TO do, not what NOT to do
ChatGPT can follow these rules reliably when you include them in your prompt.
Tools:ChatGPT