Social Stories about grief and bereavement

Download our free social stories to talk about death, grief and bereavement with a child or young person with autism.

Woman and child sat on a sofa reading from a tablet - Social stories on grief and loss from Winston's Wish

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Free Social Stories on grief to download

The concept of death, grief and bereavement can be difficult for children to understand, especially if they have autism. Using a Social Story can be a simple and straightforward way to start these discussions with children and young people with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). Below you can download our free Social Stories (more will be added soon) and find some guidance on how to use them.

What is a Social Story?

Originally developed by Carol Gray in the early 1990s, Social Stories are made up of short, concrete sentences that explain a particular event, or situation, in a way that some autistic people find helpful. Social Stories can help children and young people with autism understand a variety of situations, including bereavement and grief.

How do you use a Social Story?

Social Stories can be used to support the understanding of children and young people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) when someone they know has died. They should ideally be used at a time where everyone is feeling calm and relaxed. You may need to read the story several times and can revisit it regularly to help the child or young person.

Download our Social Stories about death, grief and bereavement

Below are the social stories we currently have available. We are developing our range of social stories, so please get in touch on communications@winstonswish.org if you have a suggestion for a social story we could create about death, bereavement or grief.

On-demand grief support

If you need some guidance on what to say or how to support a grieving young person, you can reach out to a member of our team.

If you need to speak to us in a language other than English, we can use interpreters over the phone, and we can use the Relay UK app if you have hearing or speech difficulties.