Wheelchair Friends

An illustrated social story written from a friend's point of view, explaining why someone uses a wheelchair, that walking and thinking are separate things, and that help between friends runs both ways.

An educational teaching resource from SEN Resource Source entitled My Friend is in a Wheelchair Social Story downloadable at Teach Simple.

Year groups: Not year specific
File type: PDF
Preparation: Print ready

Updated Sep 27, 2021

Topic: Inclusion, Empathy
Preparation: Print ready

From the author

About this resource

About the My Friend is in a Wheelchair Social Story

The product termed as My Friend is in a Wheelchair Social Story serves as an exceptional learning tool. It employs social stories to nurture understanding of diverse social situations amongst children, particularly those on the autism spectrum.

This teaching tool isn't just beneficial for this particular group but offers support to all children seeking clarity on new situations or concepts through simplistic explanations.

Aim of This Teaching Resource

To fortify understanding of social skills and cues;
To manage expectations;
To fathom varying perspectives and customary responses.

My Friend is in a Wheelchair Social Story specifically targets children's comprehension towards their friends who might be wheelchair users. In due course, it fosters empathy towards peers with different life experiences using their perspective portrayals.

Inclusions & Usability

An included feature within this package is a 14-page PDF version of the story that can be used universally across grades due to non-specific grade level appeal.

Tactics for teachers' usage:

Usage during whole group lessons;
Dividing students into small groups sessions;
Assigning it as homework enables deeper personal reflections;

Teachers may also opt to laminate pages or bind them for repeated use. Additional enhancement comes from colourful courtesy clipart images from Kari Bolt. .

What's included

A title page reading "My Friend is in a Wheelchair"
Thirteen illustrated story pages, each carrying one or two short sentences
Opening pages on difference generally: different hair, eyes and skin, then different personalities — brave, kind, funny, clever, friendly or helpful
Three pages on why someone uses a wheelchair: born needing one, an illness, or an injury
A page explaining paralysis as not being able to feel your legs at all
Two pages separating physical from cognitive difference — trouble with walking does not necessarily mean trouble with thinking, and someone in a wheelchair can think, talk and laugh like anyone else
A page stating that children in wheelchairs can enjoy sports and activities like anyone else
A closing pair on two-way help — things a friend finds hard that the reader can help with, and things the friend can help the reader with

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

Place using a wheelchair among the everyday differences between people rather than apart from them
Give the reasons someone might use a wheelchair, from being born needing one to an illness or injury
Explain that difficulty walking says nothing about how a person thinks
Describe ways a classmate who uses a wheelchair takes part in the same things as everyone else
Offer help where a friend needs it while recognising the help that comes back the other way

Teaching tips

The story builds in order — general difference, then bodies, then wheelchairs — so read it from the start rather than jumping to the wheelchair pages
The page on paralysis introduces the only medical word in the story; have a plain follow-up sentence ready in case a child asks what else it means
Two consecutive pages do the heavy lifting on assumptions about thinking; pause there and let children say what they had assumed before moving on
The closing spread makes help mutual rather than one-directional, which is worth returning to if a class starts treating a classmate as someone to be looked after
Everything is written from the friend's perspective, so it works read aloud to a whole class before a new classmate joins

Skills covered

Understanding difference — the story lists hair, eyes, skin and personality traits before it reaches disability, which places a wheelchair among ordinary differences.
Understanding why a wheelchair is used — three separate pages give being born needing one, an illness and an injury as different routes.
Separating physical from cognitive difference — one page states that trouble walking does not necessarily mean trouble thinking, and the next lists thinking, talking and laughing as things anyone can do.
Reciprocal helping — the closing pages pair things the reader can help a friend with against things that friend might help the reader with.

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

How does the story explain paralysis?

In one sentence: some people in a wheelchair may be paralyzed, which means that they cannot feel their legs at all. It is the only medical term in the story, and it sits between the pages on how someone comes to use a wheelchair and the pages on what that does not change.

Does the story address the assumption that a wheelchair user has difficulty thinking?

On two consecutive pages. The first says that using a wheelchair means trouble with walking but does not necessarily mean trouble with thinking; the second adds that someone in a wheelchair can think and talk and laugh just like anyone else.

In My Friend is in a Wheelchair Social Story, whose voice is the story told in?

The friend's, not the wheelchair user's. The reader is the person outside the chair throughout — "There might be things that my friend finds hard and I can help them with those things" — and the last page has the reader saying they like that their friends are all different in different ways.