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During my time as a therapist with the North Carolina TEACCH program our family hosted social gatherings for adults on the autism spectrum for many years. These gatherings were designed to share social situations and to develop necessary life skills to be successful and more at ease. We had great affection for the folks that came and we got to know them pretty well during these times. Among those who attended social group was Sammy. Sammy held a full-time job at the library of the University of North Carolina, Asheville where Linda had just begun taking classes. On her first visit to the library, she encountered Sammy who was busy restacking a pile of books to the shelves. Linda gave a friendly greeting, “Hi Sammy, how are you?” Sammy mumbled incoherently, put his work down and rushed away as quickly as possible. Linda was confused and concerned that maybe she had upset him. Later, she explained the situation to me, and we talked about Sammy’s reaction. Realizing that seeing Linda out of context of the social group was an unexpected event that he was unable to process or adjust to. We decided to rely upon a trusted form of communication:
to write and present a social story to Sammy with the hope that it would bring understanding to this new social situation.
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