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Social Stories

This step-by-step guide will help you tailor every social story to any learner, no matter their needs, interests, or goals! đŸȘ„

Malak Abdelghaffar avatar
Written by Malak Abdelghaffar
Updated over a week ago

Social Stories on Nookly are designed to support emotional growth, foster independence, and reduce anxiety—especially 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.👇


Step 1: Pick a Topic 📖

Every great Social Story starts with a specific goal. Think about the skill, situation, or routine you'd like to support your learner with—whether it's preparing for a new school, visiting the doctor, saying goodbye in the morning, or learning to ask for help.

Nookly Social Story creation screen with topic input and suggestions including Bravery, How to Ride a Bike, Sharing with Others, and Birthdays. Social Stories are designed to reduce anxiety, support routines, and build independence in children through clear, personalized narratives.

đŸȘ„ 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 🎯

Once you’ve selected your topic, it’s time to shape the story to match your learner’s 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 child’s 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 learner’s developmental stage, cultural background, and individual needs—making it feel familiar and relevant from the very first page.

👉 Need help creating a child profile? Check out this guide for a step-by-step walkthrough.

Nookly interface showing two options for creating a child's character profile: 'Enter Child Details' with a blonde child avatar playing with blocks, and 'Upload a Photo' with a dark-haired child holding a camera. Users can manually enter traits or upload a photo to generate a personalized avatar for use in customized stories.

👉 In this same step, you’ll also be able to customize your story's:

  • Length, choosing anywhere from 8 to 24 pages, depending on how long you’d 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.

Nookly story customization interface showing options for setting story length, generation mode, and story audio. Users can adjust the number of pages, choose between 'Express' and 'Enhanced Consistency' modes, and toggle on the read-aloud feature for accessibility and engagement. Example shown is a story about Bravery.

Step 3: Personalize Story Captions ✏

Now it’s time to shape the story’s language to meet your learner’s 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 learner’s comprehension level or communication style.✹

💡 If you'd prefer to start over, you can always click “Regenerate” to produce a completely new version of the story while keeping your child’s personalization intact.

Nookly story editor interface showing editable story captions for a child named Maryam. Users can add, delete, or modify text on each story card and click 'Regenerate' for a new version. Sources for content include research-based articles like 'Courage in Young Children' and '15 Courage-Boosting Activities for Kids.' Designed to support flexible storytelling and evidence-backed learning.

📖 Need help with editing? Here's a step-by-step guide.


Step 4: Edit Your Story's Images & Captions đŸ–Œ

Once your captions are in place, you’ll 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.

👉 With Edit Mode, you'll be able to:

  1. Edit your story title

  2. Update any character names

  3. Reposition text (placing it at the top, bottom, center, or directly over the image)

  4. Change the font style or size to suit your visual preferences

  5. Regenerate and edit images

Nookly editing interface showing the story 'Tim and the Special Pencil Case.' The screen displays three illustrated story cards with editable captions and image regeneration options. Users can toggle editing, change font size, and regenerate visuals. This tool supports personalization and visual learning for young readers, including those with diverse educational needs.

You have up to 20 image regenerations per story, giving you the freedom to experiment until everything looks just right. ✹

🎹 Want to learn how to edit images? Here's a more detailed guide.


Step 5: View & Read your Story 📖

Voila! Your story is ready, and you can flip through your story to enjoy the magic you’ve created!

🎧 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.

Nookly story viewer showing the read-aloud feature enabled. A smiling boy named Tim is pictured with the caption: 'Tim really liked it. He wished it was his.' Read-aloud narration supports early literacy, bedtime reading, and independent practice by letting children follow along visually while listening to the story.

👉 You can always find your story again later by clicking “Leave Child View” 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! 📚


📚 Want to Keep Your Social Story Handy?

If you’ve created a Social Story that really works for your learner, it’s often helpful to have it available across multiple settings—whether 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 you’re 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.

Nookly sharing interface with options to share a personalized story via public link, Facebook, WhatsApp, or email. Users can invite others to view or collaborate and download the story as a PDF. Ideal for co-parenting, educator collaboration, and sharing children’s stories on social media or offline.

📬 Created a story you’re especially proud of? We’d love to hear about it!


Send us your story, and it might be featured in our weekly professional spotlight or resource library.

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