Jealousy Social Story

Fifteen short pages name common jealousy triggers and reactions in the first person, then close with four concrete coping strategies like taking deep breaths.

An educational teaching resource from SEN Resource Source entitled Sometimes I Feel Jealous Social Story downloadable at Teach Simple.

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

Updated Sep 23, 2021

Subject: Social Skills, Special Resources
Topic: Social Story, Emotions
Preparation: Print ready

From the author

About 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 about coping with feelings of jealousy when someone else has something that you want.

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

Identify common triggers and physical/emotional reactions associated with feeling jealous.
Name at least one acceptable coping strategy for jealousy (talking about it, deep breaths, being happy for a friend, or reframing the thought) instead of tantrums or hurting others.

Teaching tips

Reread the story multiple times to reinforce the message, as the contributor's own notes suggest, either in a display book or laminated and bound.
Pause after the trigger pages (5-7) to ask a child to name a time they felt jealous themselves before continuing to the coping-strategy pages.
Revisit the four coping-strategy pages (13-16) as a quick reference the next time a child shows early signs of jealousy.

Skills covered

Emotional vocabulary — the story names 'jealous' directly and links it to physical cues like frowning or wanting to cry.
Trigger recognition — three concrete scenarios (a friend's toy, going first, winning a game) model what can cause the feeling.
Coping-strategy selection — four distinct strategies are named explicitly for a child to choose from when the feeling arises.
Consequence awareness — the story directly contrasts feeling jealous (okay) with acting on it through hitting or tantrums (not okay), and names the social consequence of upsetting others.

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

What coping strategies does the story suggest for jealousy?

Four are named directly: talking to someone about how you feel, taking deep breaths and staying calm, trying to be happy for your friend, and thinking 'maybe I will get it next time.'