24 related resources

Going into Foster Care Social Story

Support a conversation about entering foster care with a short illustrated story that names feelings, trusted adults and ways of coping with missing family.
Grades
Not Grade Specific
Pages
101
File type
PDF
Preparation
Print ready

Updated Jan 12, 2024

Subject
Special Education Needs (SEN), Social Skills
Topic
foster care, family transition
Resource types
Activities
Preparation
Print ready

About this resource

What's inside this resource

Support a conversation about entering foster care with a short illustrated story that names feelings, trusted adults and ways of coping with missing family.

Product description

From the author

Social story to explain a little about the situation to a child who is going into foster care. A child going into foster care can be supported by letting them know you are there for them and that they are not alone.


The point of a social story is to use a patient and reassuring tone to teach children about social situations in a way that can be easily understood. Social stories can 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 but 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.
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.

Included is a 20 page PDF printable social story. There are 3 versions - one for a child who has been taken from both parents and then for a child who has been taken from their mom or dad.


Clipart images courtesy of Kari Bolt Clip Art

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

  • Name feelings connected with a move into foster care.
  • Identify trusted adults to talk with.
  • Recognize coping ideas suited to the child’s situation.

Teaching tips

  • Choose the version that matches the child's own family structure: two-parent (American or British spelling), dad-only, mom-only, or mum-only

  • Reread the story with the child when doing so is helpful; laminating the pages or placing them in a display book keeps the copy durable for repeat use

  • Use the story's own prompts as a starting point for a calm conversation about feelings, since it specifically names a foster family, social worker, or teacher as someone the child can talk to

Skills covered

  • Emotional vocabulary — the story names specific feelings such as sadness and anger and validates them as okay to feel.

  • Understanding a life transition — sequential pages walk through what foster care is, why it is happening, and that it is not the child's fault.

  • Coping-strategy awareness — the story lists concrete actions, such as looking at photos or writing letters, for when the child misses their parents.

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

How should I choose and use a version?

Choose the family wording that best fits the child, then read together and connect the story with the arrangements explained by their care team.

No reviews yet

Downloaded this resource? Tell other teachers how it went.

Resource details

Concepts & topics

Core concepts

  • Foster care transition

  • Emotional coping strategies

  • Social story format

  • Family structure variants

Explore related searches

More to explore

You may also like