Teasing Social Story

- File type
- Preparation
- Print ready
- Subject
- Social Skills, Special Resources
- Topic
- Teasing, Social Skills
- Preparation
- Print ready
From the author
About this resource
This first-person social story introduces teasing, gives examples and explores how a comment can feel different to the speaker and listener. A stop-and-think strategy leads to five questions: Is it true, helpful, inspiring, necessary and kind?
The 13-page PDF includes the story, checklist, closing commitment and credits, with illustrations by Kari Bolt. Read together, discuss fictional examples and revisit the checklist when useful. Pages can be placed in a display book or laminated and bound.
In the classroom
Teaching tips & learning objectives
Learning objectives
Identify examples of teasing behaviour, such as name-calling or laughing at someone's mistake
Explain why a comment that feels funny to the speaker can still feel hurtful to the person it's directed at
Apply a five-question self-check (True, Helpful, Inspiring, Necessary, Kind) before speaking
Teaching tips
Read the story aloud one page at a time rather than all at once, since each page introduces a single idea (a definition, an example, a feeling, a strategy) meant to be discussed before moving to the next
Post or hand out the five-question self-check from page 11 separately as an ongoing classroom reference, since it's the story's concrete take-away strategy
Pair this story with a discussion of a recent classroom teasing situation, using the story's own contrast between how teasing feels to the speaker versus the person being teased as a discussion starter
Skills covered
Recognising teasing behaviour — the story names three concrete examples (name-calling, laughing at a mistake, mocking a skill gap) rather than defining teasing abstractly.
Perspective-taking — the story explicitly contrasts how teasing might feel funny to the person doing it with how it feels hurtful to the person being teased.
Self-regulation before speaking — a stop-and-think strategy and a five-question checklist give the student a concrete routine to apply before speaking.
Good to know
Questions teachers ask about this resource
What five questions does the story's self-check ask?
Before speaking, the story asks the student to check whether what they're about to say is True, Helpful, Inspiring, Necessary, and Kind.
How does the story explain why teasing feels different to each person involved?
It contrasts the teaser's perspective, where teasing 'might seem... funny' and 'make other children laugh,' with the target's perspective, where 'it is not funny... It is hurtful and upsetting for them.'
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Resource details
Concepts & topics
Core concepts
Teasing
Empathy
Self-regulation
Kind communication
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