Being Bossy Social Story

Product description

From the author

Social stories use a patient and reassuring tone to teach children about social situations in a way that can be easily understood. Social stories are particularly useful for children on the autistic spectrum for whom social cues can be challenging and who often suffer anxiety if they do not know what to expect from a situation however social stories can also be useful for any child who is struggling to understand a situation or concept or needs help to understand a social skill or social cue, expectations, perspectives, common responses or is troubled about an upcoming event.

This social story is for children who are being bossy towards their peers. It explains that they can make decisions for themselves but they cannot make decisions for other people as this is being bossy and will make people not want to play with them.

These books should be used over and over to reinforce the point so I would suggest either putting the pages into a display book or laminating and binding them.

Clipart images courtesy of Kari Bolt.

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

Distinguish between decisions a person can make for themselves and decisions that belong to someone else.
Identify 'being bossy' as telling other people what to do, and describe why other children may not want to play with a bossy friend.
Recall a personal commitment ('I will remember not to be bossy') as a takeaway from the story.

Teaching tips

Read together during a calm moment and pause to discuss which choices belong to each person.
Rehearse a phrase such as asking a friend what they would like to play.

Skills covered

Self-vs-other decision-making — students distinguish choices they can make for themselves from choices that belong to someone else.
Social consequence reasoning — students connect bossy behavior to a specific social outcome (friends not wanting to play).
Behavioral self-reflection — the story's final page models committing to a specific behavior change.

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