Here are some more social stories I made for the kids.
This first one I made when Sketch went through a phase of peeing where ever he happened to be, instead of using the potty. Sketch loves Veggie Tales, so on the advice of a friend, I had the characters “talk” to Sketch about using the potty.
Veggie Tales Characters Encourage Sketch to go Potty
When I first started drawing stick figures to make social stories relatively quickly, I assigned everyone in the family a certain look. So Dash always has his hair spiked up like Baby Einstein, Sketch always has a little poof on top of his head because when he was a baby, his hair on top of his head, stood straight up! And for Princess Buttercup, her hair is always was long and spirally curly, and red…just like when she was “little” Her hair is still long and red, but the curls have relaxed into waves.
This next social story was made because…well… I bet you can ALL relate to this one!
This social story is probably not rated G. But, Dash got his name from his reputation of dashing away, with lightening speed. So it was imperative that we put some fear in his fearless style. By the time this graphic story was created, Dash had run off into the street many times, and he had actually run away as well (he was 4 years old!) He did not “get it” about how hurt he could get, since with all the stunts he pulls, he never gets hurt! So we needed to be very blunt with him and try to give him a visual of what could happen. It is very hard to give a child with autism a visual that they have not already experienced and put in their own memory bank of photos!!! This did seem to make an impression on him though, thank God! And now he has doubled his age and is still with us with no ER visits!
Stay out of the street!
Treasures In The Dust 
alienhippy said,
December 15, 2010 at 11:12 AM
Hi Merri,
These are really good. I had a problem with *AJ weeing anywhere he thought he could too. I’m so glad he got to understand eventually. I never thought of drawing pictures to explain to him though. I would find little bits of wee in all sorts of things. Once I was at my Aunties flat and me and my Auntie was in the kitchen. I had left *AJ watching the TV. When we came back into the living room, he was piddling in the Yucca plant. My Auntie was flabbergasted, bless him he said, “Mommy said I can wee up trees!”
He also used to run off, it used to worry me sick. I lost him a few times and I have never been so scared in my life. They grow up so quickly, I can’t believe he’s 17 now.
Thanks for the post, really enjoyed it.
Love and hugs.
Lisa. xx 🙂
Merri Lewis said,
December 15, 2010 at 11:39 AM
HA HA Cute story Lisa! (About the Yucca plant!) Classic!
Laurel said,
December 15, 2010 at 11:28 AM
I so get those stories! My ‘dash’ is 12 and just stopped peeing in his bucket in his room at night…now he goes to the potty in the middle of the night AND wakes up dry!!!! (some professionals that the pee bucket was tacky….but it worked!! Just getting him to empty it every morning was the trick. But at least it helped him wake up dry…and no laundry for me. My ‘dash’ also has peed anywhere…even on tires in grocery store parking lots! Ugh.
Merri Lewis said,
December 15, 2010 at 11:40 AM
Yeah!!! Laurel, you give me hope that one day… ugh is right! The most traumatic event in the potty training world of Dash was when he climbed up on the counter (he was 3 or 4) stood up and peed into the open silverware drawer!!! Oh my!!! Now he is trained day/night too (he is now but we went through daily carpet cleaning for a year with him b/c he refused to use the toilet or potty!!! Sketch is still leaving deposits in buckets, which, I agree, is much better than on the carpet!!
fiona2107 said,
December 16, 2010 at 4:47 AM
I so hear you all! What is it about little boys peeing everywhere?
Great pictures Merri 🙂
x
Merri Lewis said,
December 16, 2010 at 9:02 AM
They have dangerous “weapons”!!! Less messy on them to do that than for girls, I guess!!!
betsy said,
December 23, 2010 at 10:04 PM
I hope you have the most wonderful Christmas!
Good luck with the potty training! 🙂
~Betsy
xxoo
Merri Lewis said,
December 23, 2010 at 10:51 PM
Thank you Betsy! You have a Beautiful Christmas too 🙂
Laurel said,
December 26, 2010 at 10:38 AM
I should add that we just gave up on cleaning the carpet in his room and pulled it up! But we couldn’t get that smell out of there! And the dogs would go in and smell and mark when he had peed! Very frustrating.
Merri Lewis said,
December 26, 2010 at 5:20 PM
We are there, Laurel!!! We have to add to our house since we have 3 bedrooms and 4 kids (soon!) and the boys have to have their own room. We are going to do hardwood (or fake hard wood at first) for easier clean up. The carpet isn’t that old (7 years?) but it is so ruined… plus, we have dust allergies pretty severely so we’re going to be eliminating the carpet for that reason too, as we can.