A story about what will happen

The sheet

A small book to make with your child before something new: where they are going, who will be there and what usually happens. On the second page, how to write it, with an example.

To make together · A4, two pages · Two pages · PDF, 69 KB

How it helps

Many autistic children find not knowing what will happen harder than the thing itself. A short, accurate story about what usually happens tells them what to expect, in words and pictures they can go back to as often as they like.

How to use it

1. A few days before something new, find out what usually happens there, in order. Photos of the real place and people help most.
2. Write it with your child on the pages, a sentence and a picture on each, as “I” or with their name. Use “usually” and “sometimes”, and leave out “should”, “must” and anything about past meltdowns.
3. Cut the pages out, put them in order and staple them. Read it together a few times in the days before, when your child is calm, and let them keep it.
4. Afterwards, add the last page about how it went. Never read it after a meltdown as a lesson about behaving.

How to get this sheet

This sheet comes with a subscription. It is also yours with its chapter, if that is the chapter you read free, or if a teacher or therapist sends it to you. School staff and therapists signed in to their shelf can print it too.

The first chapter you open here is free to read in full, with its sheets. This one goes with Neurodiversity, and the Conversation with the School and When Reassurance Stops Working.

Free to print

These are free to anyone, with nothing to sign up for.

• A plan for a bad dayTo fill in together · A4
• Before you ring the schoolFor a call or a meeting · A4
• What to say: school and friendsCards to cut out · A4, eight cards to cut
• Before the SENCo meetingFor a meeting · A4
• Three reports, side by sideFor a meeting · A4 landscape
• The return-to-school meetingFor a meeting · A4
• The move to secondary school, for a parents’ eveningFor a parents’ evening · A4, five pages
• The last half-hour before bedFor the fridge · A4
• The worry ladderTo fill in together · A4
• Before you see the GP about your childFor an appointment · A4, two sides
• A record of what happenedFor a call or a meeting · A4, two pages
• The people I can tellTo make together · A4, two pages

Every sheet, marked free or with a subscription, is at theparentbook.com/printables.