Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Social Stories with Peppa Pig...



Jazzygal did a great post on her blog recently on obsessions and using them to harness your childs skills such as hand eye coordination, fine motor skills, communication and problem solving, and as I read it I couldn't help but think about Munchkins obsession with Peppa Pig and other television programs. I don't know what exactly it is about that precocious little piggy that seems to catch her attention more than any other character has but I am grateful to the makers of the series as they have provided me with one of the most valuable tools I can use with Munchkin... Social Stories.

You may laugh at the thought of Peppa Pig as a tool for autism but I firmly believe that she has smoothed the path of visits to the doctor, dentist etc admirably. For every situation we have encountered, there seems to be an episode that relates to it. I remember having to bring Munchkin to an eye test and prepared her for weeks beforehand watching the episode where Peppa goes to the optician... We had to wait as they were running late so she started acting up... By the time we got in she was a bit wound up so I reminded her that this was like when Peppa went to the optician.... The Orthopist corrected me haughtily so that was enough for me to crack... I growled at him "Until they make a Peppa Pig episode with an orthopist... you're a damn optician.. RIGHT!" I was a bit stressed....

You don't have to buy expensive tools or kits to make social stories work for you. I have seen excellent social stories with hand drawn matchstick men which can be very effective. The web has lots of free drawings you can download and print off to do your own. One of my best purchases was a Tesco Value Basics laminator and I print off pictures and with my glue stick and laminator have made practically indestructible story books.

I took a series of photos for my niece over the summer when she left her beloved "Ducky" at my house after a visit and posted them onto my facebook page everyday so that she could follow "Duckys Holidays" until we were able to reunite them (posting wasn't an option in case he went awol...) I was surprised how many professionals got into the spirit of things and let me photograph them with the stuffed duck when I explained what I was doing. He visited the dentist, the doctor, the pharmacy and the hospital (xray dept for the Elder Lemons pneumonia which this bad mother was just giving paracetamol and sending him off to school!) These pictures can now be used for future social stories I have to write for Munchkin too...




8 comments:

grufalomum said...

Saw that episode of PP today & thought of you .. lol. Yes that percocious pig is much viewed in this house too.

But would agree with you Social Storys are an excellent tool - tried and tested in this house several times & god bless google image - how could we write them without it!

Great post as always btwn yourself, Queen Hammie & Jazzygal the bar has certainly been highly set for Irish Autie Mum bloggers xx

Jean said...

My son has an eye test next week, and we never used social stories yet...yet again, you have just inspired me XXX
P.s great to see duckie again!

Anonymous said...

love it, my son also a huge peppa fan and i never even taught of using them as social stories, nice one hun, il be downloading and dvd buying, and your right, they have almost everything you need covered

mandie xx

jazzygal said...

Ah, yes Petunia... I too am such a lover of Social Stories! Peppa Pig... Ducky...Thomas the tank (us!)...Mario (Nintendo)...it ALL works. Just feed into their obsessions and they CAN do some good!

You are so right, they don't have to be hi tech ones. I remember when I first heard of the concept which was pre-diagnosis.We were havin major problems getting Snuggles...oops!! I mean Wiiboy!!...off to the childminder and then getting him home again. I was advised to draw pictures. Yeah, me! Draw pictures! Gawd! Pathetic pics of him in buggy going to her house, me on Dart on train tracks (just like Thomas!)and then coming home again!! It really worked...despite how pathetic the drawings were!

Thanks for the link missus..and thanks Grufalomum for your lovely comment! xx Jazzy

Anonymous said...

You know, I've been doing the peppa pig thing but never saw the connection with social stories! We've been using Peppa pig stories for ages when in a new situation (the latest one - we were staying with my mum in her apartment this summer, and the kids weren't used to the sound of steps in the flat above. Peppa pig Christmas episode came handy:"what's that noise?"-"its Father Christmas coming down the chimney!". I think ds2, who is 3, sincerely believed Santa will turn up eventually, in July!) Even traffic jams got more bearable since Pigs' car got stuck in a traffic jam. God bless the little piggy, for somebody like me who never got around to drawing a social story she is a life saver..

Truf

Lisamaree said...

I can't understand why Ducky doesn't have a show on cable yet! xx

Anonymous said...

My 4 boys really miss Ducky ( Munchie used to come home from school asking where Ducky had been today)... think it may be time to market your "Ducky goes to.. " books Petunia. xx

Petunia said...

You never know girls... I might just do "Duckys Social Stories"... He had such a huge fanbase on facebook :) xx

Post a Comment

Google analytics