Social Stories on Nookly are designed to support emotional growth, foster independence, and reduce anxietyâespecially during moments of transition, uncertainty, or new experiences. These stories are particularly helpful for children who benefit from structured, visual guidance and clear, supportive language.
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Whether you're a therapist preparing a child for their first haircut or an educator helping students navigate classroom routines, Social Stories give you a flexible, easy-to-edit tool to create personalized narratives that resonate deeply with each child you support.
Here's how to create one from scratch.đ
Step 1: Pick a Topic đ
Every great Social Story starts with a specific goal. Think about the skill, situation, or routine you'd like to support your learner withâwhether it's preparing for a new school, visiting the doctor, saying goodbye in the morning, or learning to ask for help.
đȘ Need ideas or looking for inspiration? Check out the Community Library to explore fun, creative templates created by our team and that others have used!
Step 2: Personalize Your Story đŻ
Once youâve selected your topic, itâs time to shape the story to match your learnerâs world.
If you already have a child profile saved, you can simply select it from your list of kiddos. If not, creating a new child profile is easy and can be done manually by filling in your childâs details, or you can upload a photo to automatically generate an avatar that reflects their look!
Personalizing the profile helps ensure that the story reflects the learnerâs developmental stage, cultural background, and individual needsâmaking it feel familiar and relevant from the very first page.
đ Need help creating a child profile? Check out this guide for a step-by-step walkthrough.
đ In this same step, youâll also be able to customize your story's:
Length, choosing anywhere from 8 to 24 pages, depending on how long youâd like the story to be.
Generation Mode, where you can pick between Express (faster, more flexible) and Enhanced Consistency (for stronger image cohesion across pages).
Audio Settings, which allow you to turn on the read-aloud feature for an added layer of accessibility and engagement during storytime.
Step 3: Personalize Story Captions âïž
Now itâs time to shape the storyâs language to meet your learnerâs needs. Each story is generated with clear, concrete language that aligns with best practices for learning, but every caption is fully editable, allowing you to tweak the wording, tone, or phrasing to match your learnerâs comprehension level or communication style.âš
đĄ If you'd prefer to start over, you can always click âRegenerateâ to produce a completely new version of the story while keeping your childâs personalization intact.
đ Need help with editing? Here's a step-by-step guide.
Step 4: Edit Your Story's Images & Captions đŒ
Once your captions are in place, youâll move into Edit Mode, which opens up more control over your story's visual and text presentation. This is where you can fine-tune everything from the layout and formatting to the image expressions, background, and character actions.
đ With Edit Mode, you'll be able to:
Edit your story title
Update any character names
Reposition text (placing it at the top, bottom, center, or directly over the image)
Change the font style or size to suit your visual preferences
Regenerate and edit images
You have up to 20 image regenerations per story, giving you the freedom to experiment until everything looks just right. âš
đš Want to learn how to edit images? Here's a more detailed guide.
Step 5: View & Read your Story đ
Voila! Your story is ready, and you can flip through your story to enjoy the magic youâve created!
đ§ If you've enabled the read-aloud option, the story will also play with narration, which can be especially helpful for learners with reading difficulties or short attention spans.
đ You can always find your story again later by clicking âLeave Child Viewâ and heading to your Reading Nook, where all your saved and edited stories live. From there, you can revisit your story anytime, make changes, and print it! đ
đ Want to Keep Your Social Story Handy?
If youâve created a Social Story that really works for your learner, itâs often helpful to have it available across multiple settingsâwhether at home, at school, or in therapy sessions.
With just a few clicks, you can:
Print your story as a high-quality physical book to keep in a classroom, therapy room, or take-home binder.
Download your story as a PDF if youâre on a Premium Plan, making it easy to share, laminate, and print for repeated use.
Share your story via a link with families, co-therapists, paraprofessionals, or teachers supporting the same child.
Invite collaborators to edit or adapt the story together, ensuring consistency and shared language across environments.
đŹ Created a story youâre especially proud of? Weâd love to hear about it!
Send us your story, and it might be featured in our weekly professional spotlight or resource library.