Social story for travelling by plane.

We're doing it again, attempting to take a holiday in the UK. Two years ago, it was a bit of a fiasco as far as Max was concerned. He had daily meltdowns because he wanted to go home. We travelled around far too much, to visit relatives, go to a conference, and even took the train to Paris for a couple of weeks. And we had a huge amount of trouble getting Max into a plane - he had to be carried in screaming a couple of times. Not fun.

Then, last year, we discovered social stories. Drawing things for Max before they happen really worked. He would know what to expect, would rehearse it in his head, and be prepared. We drew some when we were going to fly to the coast to holiday with Marianne and her family. Max wasn't reading yet, but he understood pictures, no matter how sketchily drawn, really well. We got him there and back without too much problem, and there were no major meltdowns while we were there. It was a good holiday for all. No mean feat.

Then last month we went to Cappadocia and I drew some very detailed social stories about travelling and being there. Because Max can now read I also inserted quite a bit of text, which enabled me to get more detail into the sequences. This was a success. Max loves going to Cappadocia, but he always gets nervous at various points during our stay and that means he's more likely to have meltdowns. This time, he was relaxed the whole time, enjoyed every moment, and was even able to take in small variations in the plans.

So now our plane tickets are confirmed, I'm beginning to get busy with the stories. That means asking the people we're staying with some very detailed questions about houses and habits and stuff, and of course, producing the stories is, as you can imagine, quite time consuming. One thing I've tried is to scan the pictures and enter the text with  a picture editor. This saves me having to draw the letters carefully enough so that Max can actually decipher them.

So, anyhow, here's what I've got so far.  Any ideas as to how I might make it better are welcome. And please fell free to download it and put in your own text if you think that would be useful (I've used Picnic, which is free and easy to use).

Social stories for Cappadocia

I've spent the last two hours drawing social story boards for Max for our upcoming trip to Cappadocia, so I thought I'd share them with you. These took a while to draws as I did them on cardboard with an ink pen, and spent some time thinking through our schedule before hand. Everyday ones are usually quicker.
When I wasn't completely sure as to what we were going to do, I left the pictures in pencil, so I can change them later on.
Also, I didn't colour them, as I'm really bad at colour. But they would probably look more attractive if I did.

The first one is about how to behave at the hotel. I'm especially hoping that Max won't be too loud first thing in the morning. We usually stay in the same place at Goreme, so the story is reusable.

For those of you who are not familiar with Cappadocia, the funny pointy things are fairy chimneys, and in the early mornings you can see a lot of hot air balloons floating around. The big round thing Max is floating in on the second frame is a jacuzzi. One reason we love this hotel is that even though it's cheap and simple and the rooms are carved in the stone, the bathrooms are huge and the children can have baths! The hotel's name is the Flintstones, and I highly recommend it.

The next two cards are daily schedules for the saturday, sunday and monday. We come by coach. It's a five hour journey with a break in the middle. The second day we hire a driver by the name of Zekerya bey who takes us around. The third day we usually just go for a walk and then hop back in the bus to go home. We pretty much do the same thing everytime which really helps with Max! Again, I'm hoping I can re-use the cards by just changing the dates on them. (I had to write them as Max is into dates big way).

This will be the first time I use anything as complete for a trip. I'm hoping it will help smooth out some awkward moments. I'll let you know!