Appropriate Diet – A Social Story for Autism

I have uploaded a new video on youtube. This video is something that I made to try and stop my 16 year old autistic son from eating too much of the same food. I didn’t make necessarily warn him about eating a healthy and balanced diet, , but I explained to him through the video how eating too much can be bad for your body.

I wanted to know how much of the video my son would understand because some of the words may have been a little too complex for him. My son did not understand it 100% by watching it just once.

However, he responded to the pictures that showed up in the video, and started seeing that gaining too much weight wasn’t good for his body. As a parent, I started to think to myself– I want my son, Wataru, to know what is happening to other kids in the world, because some people aren’t lucky enough to have a meal on the table everyday like Wata is. That is why I included some content that Wata might not fully understand in the video about how people in other countries regard food.

Now, whenever Wata eats too much or is about to reach for seconds, I say to him, “Remember what you saw in Appropriate Diet”. When I say this, he thinks a little bit, and then stops going for seconds. Recently, he occasionally says something about people in other countries not having enough to eat.

I have attached the slide I made (as PowerPoint and PDF) at the bottom, so please feel free to download it, and change the food to your son or daughter’s favorite to teach them the same lesson I taught Wata.