Fear of insects Social Story

About this resource

What's inside this resource

For children who experience intense fear or phobias related to insects, this social story resource provides supporting explanations and coping strategies. Specifically tailored for children on the autism spectrum who may struggle reading social cues, the story aims to logically address the reasons behind insect fears and equip children with skills to manage them.

Using a reassuring tone, the social story explains how most insects pose no real danger to humans, as many are so tiny compared to a person’s size. While some insects like bees can sting, the story gives facts about how insect stings rarely cause serious harm. It also highlights all the useful things insects do, like pollinating plants.

The second half of the story outlines constructive ways children can deal with insect fears when encountered. This includes techniques like staying calm, thinking logical thoughts about how small insects are, and reminding themselves that insects are useful to their earth.

By addressing both the emotional and reality-based sides of insect fears, this social story uses clear language and visuals to teach autistic children coping methods. It validates their feelings while also gently challenging catastrophic thinking. The final outcome is a set of strategies children can employ themselves when afraid, giving them skills, reassurance, and power to manage phobias.

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 Clip Art

What's included

A nineteen-page illustrated social story titled "Insects are Friendly", one short sentence or two per page
An opening page naming types of insects: bees, butterflies, spiders and ladybirds
Three pages that name and validate the feeling, including "It is OK to feel scared because everyone feels scared sometimes"
Reassurance pages: insects do not want to hurt me, they are much much smaller than me, and they are scared of me
Four pages on what insects do — pollinating flowers, eating smaller insects, feeding birds, fish and hedgehogs, and making silk and honey
Coping pages: try not to run away or scream, speak to someone about how I feel, take deep breaths and stay calm
A repeatable phrase page — reminding myself "Insects are friendly" — printed with the phrase set out on its own
A closing thank-you and credits page acknowledging Kari Bolt for the clipart

Resource types: Activities

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

Name the feeling — scared — and recognise it as something everyone experiences
Recall three reasons an insect is not a threat: it does not want to hurt me, it is much smaller than me, and it is frightened of me
Describe what insects do that is useful, from pollinating plants to being food for birds, fish and hedgehogs
Choose an alternative to running away or screaming when an insect appears
Use two named coping strategies — talking to someone and taking deep breaths — and a phrase to repeat when frightened

Teaching tips

The story does not argue the child out of the fear at the start; it names it on page three and validates it on page five, so reading straight to the coping pages loses the sequence that makes it work
The middle stretch is factual — pollination, silk, honey, insects as food — so it can double as a short science read once the emotional pages have done their work
The phrase "Insects are friendly" is printed separately on its own page as something to repeat, which makes it the natural line to rehearse away from the book
Read it before an outdoor session or a summer term rather than only at the moment of panic, so the strategies are already familiar when an insect appears
The book is written to be reread; laminating or binding the pages, as the contributor suggests, keeps it usable across repeated readings

Skills covered

Naming an emotion — the story states "Sometimes when I see insects it makes me feel scared" in the child's own voice, giving the feeling a word.
Normalising a fear — one page reads "It is OK to feel scared because everyone feels scared sometimes", separating the feeling from any fault.
Perspective taking — the story turns the fear around with "When insects see me they are scared of me."
Factual reframing — pollination, pest control, insects as food for birds and hedgehogs, and silk and honey production are each given a page as reasons to see insects differently.
Self-regulation strategies — the closing pages name not running or screaming, speaking to someone, deep breathing, and repeating a calming phrase.

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

Which coping strategies does the story name?

Four, all in the closing pages: trying not to run away or scream, speaking to someone about how you feel, taking deep breaths and staying calm, and repeating the phrase "Insects are friendly" to yourself. The last is printed on its own page so it can be rehearsed as a line.

Which insect facts does the story use?

Four pages of them. Bees pollinate flowers and plants so new plants can grow; ladybirds and spiders eat smaller insects so there are not too many; birds, fish and hedgehogs need to eat bugs to live; and silkworms make silk while bees make honey.

Which spelling and vocabulary conventions does the story use?

British ones. The story says ladybirds rather than ladybugs, and hedgehogs appear among the animals that eat insects, which is a familiar creature in Britain and Ireland but not in North America — worth a word of introduction with a class that has not met one.