When Debbie and I first started creating our Visual Stories range, one of the earliest conversations we had wasn't about content, design, or format. It was about what to call them.
The easy answer, and the one that would definitely have the most search volume, would have been to call them Social Stories. Our stories are designed to support autistic children and young people after all. They're written in a calm, accessible, first-person style and they prepare readers for new experiences. So, they might seem like Social Stories, but we're not using that name, for a very deliberate reason.
Social Stories were developed by Carol Gray in 1991, and since then they are widely used by autistic people as an extremely effective communication tool. But Carol Gray didn't just write a few stories and give them a name. She created a precise system — a framework with specific criteria that a story must meet in order to genuinely be called a Social Story.
The goal of a Social Story is to share social understanding from the perspective of an individual. To qualify, a Social Story must include a particular sentence structure. (I won't go into the structure in detail here - that's a conversation for another day). It is also written about a particular individual and their particular struggle, within a certain context.
Crucially, a Social Story is written for one specific person about one very specific situation or behaviour. It is deeply individualised. It might be written to help one child understand why their classroom routine is changing, or to prepare a particular young person for a specific medical appointment. The story belongs to that individual — it reflects their world, their language, their needs.
The term 'Social Story' is used very loosely in schools, therapy settings, and online resources . However these stories sometimes don't qualify. I don't say this to criticise - those writing these come with good intentions. It's just that we don't want to mislead you. And this is why we don't call ours Social Stories.
We have written more generic stories to be used by a whole variety of children. Our stories don't include a particular individual's context or point of view, plus we haven't followed the Social Stories sentence structure - because it wouldn't fit in these stories since they are longer than what works with the Social Stories framework. So, it would be wrong of us, disrespectful to Carol's work, and misleading to you, to call them something that they are not.
As professionals who work in the SEND and autism support space (one of us is a speech and language therapist, and one of us as a teacher and visual communication specialist), we know what a Social Story is. We know what it requires. And we know that what we have created is something different.
Our Visual Stories are independence guides. Take Going On A Plane, for example. This story walks a child through the entire experience of air travel — from check-in and security, through boarding and the flight itself, to collecting luggage and leaving the airport. It prepares a reader for the sights, sounds, sensory experiences and sequences they are likely to encounter. It introduces key vocabulary. It offers reassurance at every stage.
It is written in a calm, supportive first-person voice, and it is designed to be used by any child who might benefit from that preparation — not one specific child, not in response to one specific behaviour, and not following the precise sentence-type ratios that Carol Gray's methodology requires.
Here's an example.
A Social Story written for a child about air travel might focus on one very specific aspect — perhaps managing the feeling of the seatbelt light coming on, or understanding why there is a queue at security. It would be tailored to that individual child's specific challenge with that specific moment. It would be written by or with the support of a professional who knows that child well.
Our Visual Story covers the whole journey, for anyone who might make it. That's a different thing. A genuinely useful thing, but a different thing.
It's about respect.
When we chose the name Visual Stories, it wasn't because we couldn't think of anything better. It was because we actively didn't want to claim a term that belongs to someone else's carefully built framework.
Carol Gray's work has changed lives. The Social Story methodology has given thousands of autistic individuals a tool for understanding a world that can feel confusing and overwhelming. We don't want to dilute that term, or do a disservice to her contribution and to the professionals who apply her methodology with precision.
Social Stories, written properly by trained professionals for individual children, remain an invaluable personalised intervention. We can, and do, write Social Stories for individuals - just get in touch if you'd like us to work on this with you.
Visual Stories, like ours, offer something different — accessible, general preparation guides that any family, teacher or support worker can pick up and use.
They're not the same thing. And we think that's worth saying clearly.
Our range of Visual Stories are written by Debbie Russell-Jones, Speech and Language Therapist, and Gina Smith, former teacher and founder of Create Visual Aids. Each story is designed to support individuals in preparing for new experiences with confidence.