Use this free printable haircut social story to build social skills, decrease social anxiety, increase confidence, decrease challenging behaviors, and increase joy and flow. Download your free printable haircut social story here. If you are looking for an entire collection of social stories you can use immediately, get your copy of the Autism Social Stories Bundle here.
What is the haircut social story?
A haircut social story uses photos and short sentences to explain exactly what to expect when getting a haircut at the hair salon.
It is a short story that shows and explains an appointment at the hair salon, step-by-step.
Why use social stories with autism learners
I love using social stories with my students. They help autistic individuals understand different social situations by providing step-by-step visual instructions, as well as a short sentence or paragraph that explains the situation.
Download your free printable haircut social story here.
How to prep the free printable haircut social story
Prepping this activity couldn’t be simpler! There are just 3 easy steps.
- Step 1 – Download the haircut social story.
- Step 2 – Print it out.
- Step 3 – Laminate it (optional) to use it again and again.
Benefits of using the haircut social story with autistic learners
Using social stories with autistic individuals has a plethora of benefits from building social skills, to increasing confidence, to decreasing challenging behaviors in social settings.
- Build social skills. Using a visual tool like a social story helps to build social skills.
- Decrease social anxiety. By knowing what to do in the social situation to be able to navigate the situation more smoothly, you will help your child or students decrease their social anxiety. Think of a social story as a tool you are giving them to decrease the stress that comes with being in social situations.
- Increase confidence. Decreased stress leads to increased confidence. By working through the situation several times with the help of a social story, you are preparing your learner to be confidence once he or she is in the actual social situation (in this case getting a haircut).
- Decrease challenging behaviors. Challenging behaviors are always a form of communication and typically related to some kind of stress. By decreasing anxiety and preparing your child or student for the situation ahead of time with the help of a social story, you are decreasing the probability of having to manage challenging behaviors that are stressful for the child and disruptive for everyone involved.
- Increase joy and flow. By decreasing social anxiety and challenging behaviors and increasing social skills and confidence, you will automatically increase joy and flow.
Download your free printable haircut social story here.
How to use the haircut social story with children with autism
There are many ways to use this social story with children with autism.
These are some of my favorite ideas.
- Let your child or students flip through the social story on their own. They can take in the visual information from the real life photos of children engaging in the social situation they are learning about from the social story. If they can read, they can also read about each photo themselves.
- Read the social story with your child or students. Flip through each page and read the corresponding text.
- Have your child or students read the story aloud to you. If your little learner is already reading, why not ask him or her to read the social story aloud to you?
- Read and act out the social story together. As you read through the story with your child or students, why not act out each situation as you go along to make learning less abstract, and more concrete, for your autistic learner.
- Use the social story in a small group of children. If you are working in a classroom setting or you have more than one child at home, use the social story as a tool to set up a small group activity that teaches about social skills.
Download your free printable haircut social story here.
More social stories
More Autism Learning Resources
- The Successful Interaction with a Child with Autism Course – learn to better understand your autistic child or students with this complete course.
- Autism Activities Workbook Bundle – build communication skills, fine motor skills, sensory play skills and daily living skills, while helping your child or students to successfully manage any difficult behaviors, with these fun, educational, printable activities.
- Autism Adapted Books Bundle – build communication skills with my collection of printable adapted books for autistic learners.
- Autism Social Stories Bundle – a collection of printable social stories to help your little learners work on their social skills.
- Sensory Communication Workbook – Build communication skills with simple sensory activities.
- How to Make a Communication Binder Guide & Workbook – Learn how to create a Communication Binder for your child or student with autism using real photos. Follow my expert guide to learn how to use it to increase communication skills.
- Zoo Animals Play Dough Mats Bundle – use these printable play dough mat to work on the names of the animals, build language skills, and increase fine motor strength and precision in a fun, sensory way!
Haircut Social Story
I hope that this social story helps your child or students have a successful haircut with more joy and less stress!
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