Telling the Truth Social Story

Name: Telling the Truth Social Story
SKU: telling-the-truth-social-story
Price: 19.99 AUD
Availability: InStock

A first-person social story walks a child through recognising what a lie is, how lying affects friends' feelings, and a closing commitment to tell the truth instead.

File type: PDF
Preparation: Print ready

Updated Sep 27, 2026

Subject: Social Skills, Special Resources
Topic: Social Story, Telling the Truth
Preparation: Print ready

From the author

About this resource

This twelve-page illustrated social story includes ten short first-person statements about telling the truth. Read it with a child and use familiar examples to discuss honesty, pretend play and mistakes.

The download contains the story, cover and publisher page. For repeated reading, place printed pages in a display book or laminate and bind them. Clipart is credited to Kari Bolt.

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

Identify what makes a statement a lie, using the story's own definition: "when you say something that did not really happen."
Describe how lying can affect other people's feelings, citing the story's own examples of sadness and anger.
State a personal commitment to telling the truth, using the story's closing line ("I will always try to tell the truth") as a model.

Teaching tips

Read the ten statement pages aloud in sequence with a child, since each page builds on the honesty theme established by the one before it.
Because each page carries only one short sentence, pause after each page to ask the child to connect that statement to a situation they've experienced.
Use the repeated sentence stem ("When I tell lies it makes everyone feel...") as a discussion prompt, asking the child to predict the ending before turning the page.

Skills covered

Perspective-taking — the child considers how lying affects other people's feelings, moving from "sad" to "angry" across consecutive pages.
Behavioural self-commitment — the child rehearses a first-person promise to tell the truth, modelled on the story's closing statement.
Concept contrast — the child distinguishes a lie ("something that did not really happen") from the truth ("things exactly as they happened") using the story's own definitions.