Name: I Can’t Always Play Video Games Social Story
SKU: 61519daeb0ab3b71387dc33d
Price: 39.99 USD
Availability: InStock

About this resource

What's inside this resource

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 to explain to a child who wants to do nothing but play video games that while it is OK to play video games sometimes, it is also important to spend time doing other things.

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

Recognise in first-person language why long unbroken sessions of video-game play crowd out other activities
Name at least one alternative activity - art and crafts, reading, sports or music - to turn to when the games go off
Use a timer as the signal to stop playing, rather than relying on being asked to stop
Anticipate that stopping may feel hard, and connect the choice to stop with feeling healthier and with a parent's approval

Teaching tips

Read the story before a session of screen time rather than during a dispute about it - the text is written to be revisited calmly, not used as a correction in the moment
Pair the timer page with an actual timer the child can see and set, so the page describes something already familiar rather than something new
Let the child pick which of the four named alternatives - art and crafts, reading, sports or music - goes with the timer that day; the page offers them as options rather than a required order
One short sentence per page with a matching image means the story can be read aloud in a couple of minutes and repeated often, which is how a social story does its work
The final two pages are the positive ending; keep them for the close rather than stopping after the pages about what goes wrong

Skills covered

Self-regulation of screen time - the story models setting a timer and treating the alarm as the signal to stop playing.
Naming alternatives - a dedicated page offers art and crafts, reading, sports and music as things to move on to.
Understanding consequences - three pages connect long play sessions to missing out on other things, to effects on the brain, and to not getting enough exercise.
Emotional preparation - one page states plainly that turning the games off may feel hard, so the difficulty is named before it happens rather than treated as failure.
Recognising a positive outcome - the closing pages link the choice to a parent's pride and to the child feeling healthier and happier.

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

What alternatives does the story offer instead of playing?

Four, all on one page: art and crafts, reading, sports and music. They are presented as things that are fun to do rather than as chores, and the following page pairs them with a timer as the way of making the switch.

How does the story handle the moment of turning the games off?

With a timer and an honest admission. One page explains that when the timer goes off it is time to turn the video games off and do something else; the next says plainly "I may find it hard to turn off my video games" before restating that doing other things is good for the reader.

In I Can’t Always Play Video Games Social Story, whose voice is the story told in?

The child's own. Every page is first person - "I love to play video games", "If I spend too long each day...", "my parents will be proud of me" - which is what lets a child read or hear it as their own reasoning rather than as an instruction from an adult.