The short answer: Carol Gray's "10.2" is the version of her 10 defining criteria for a Social Story (last revised in 2010), not a sentence ratio. The actual sentence ratio is 2:1 (or higher) descriptive-to-directive. In a 2024 Emoquest community survey of 16 parents, school SLPs, OTs, and special educators, 94% reported spending 30 or more minutes on a single social story; the rushed ones almost always break the 2:1 ratio because writers default to a stack of "I will" lines.
Why do so many school SLPs misread 10.2 as a ratio?
Because the number looks like a ratio and gets repeated that way in second-hand summaries. Gray and The Gray Center released the 10 defining criteria for a Social Story in 2010 and labeled the document version 10.2. Over time, blog posts started writing it as "Carol Gray 10:2" and treating the colon as a ratio of descriptive to directive sentences. The actual ratio in the criteria is 2:1 at minimum. The 2025 AFIRM Social Narratives Brief Packet cites the same Gray criteria when classifying social narratives as an evidence-based practice for autistic learners ages 3 to 22.
What are the 10 defining criteria of a Social Story (version 10.2)?
These are the checks Gray's methodology applies to anything that gets called a Social Story. Run them in order when you audit a draft:
| # | Criterion | What the school SLP checks |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Goal | One specific, supportive goal for one student. |
| 2 | Two-part discovery | You researched the situation AND the student's perspective on it. |
| 3 | Three-part title and introduction, body, conclusion | Has a descriptive title; intro, body, and conclusion are all present. |
| 4 | FOURmat (format) | Page layout, text size, and visuals match the student's reading and attention level. |
| 5 | Five factors that define voice and vocabulary | First or third person, positive tone, accurate, literal, age-appropriate. |
| 6 | Six questions guide content | Story answers where, when, who, what, how, and why. |
| 7 | Seven sentence types | Descriptive, perspective, affirmative, directive, cooperative, control, partial sentences. |
| 8 | A sentence formula (the ratio) | At least 2 descriptive / perspective / affirmative / cooperative / control sentences for every 0 to 1 directive sentence. |
| 9 | Nine guidelines to make it patient and supportive | Edit for tone: no blame, no surprise reveals, no "you should." |
| 10 | Ten guidelines for implementation | Read before the situation, not during. Re-read on a schedule. Plan to fade. |
Criterion 8 is where the ratio lives. The sentences you count as the "2" can be descriptive, perspective, affirmative, cooperative, or control. The "1" is directive or coaching. Partial sentences (fill-in-the-blank style) are not counted in either side of the ratio.
How do I apply the 2:1 ratio in a real K-5 story?
The trap most rushed stories fall into is writing a 6-page story with one directive sentence per page (so 6 directive sentences) and only 4 to 6 descriptive sentences. That is roughly 1:1, not 2:1, and Gray would not consider it a Social Story.
A clean K-5 example for a haircut, with sentence types labeled:
(Descriptive) Sometimes I need a haircut. (Descriptive) The barber's shop has a tall chair and a buzzy clipper. (Perspective) Most kids feel safer when they know what will happen next. (Affirmative) Knowing the steps is okay. (Cooperative) The barber will tell me before they turn on the clipper. (Directive) I can try to keep my head still while the barber works. (Control) If I feel worried, I can hold the squeeze ball in my pocket and count to ten.
That is 6 non-directive sentences for 1 directive sentence, a 6:1 ratio. Comfortable margin over the 2:1 minimum and the story still reads as a complete narrative.
What does the research say about why the ratio matters?
A 2026 Frontiers in Psychology meta-analysis of 21 single-case studies (61 participants) found a moderate overall effect (Tau-U = 0.743) for social stories, strongest for school-aged children 7 to 12. Studies with the largest effects shared a pattern: the stories were highly individualized and described the situation before prescribing a behavior. The 2:1 ratio is the structural mechanism that forces that order. The 2024 ASSSIST2 RCT (n=249 UK primary students, summarized in the NIHR HSDR report) showed the strongest gains correlated with implementation fidelity, which includes adherence to the Gray criteria above.
Money quote from the Emoquest 2024 survey: "I wish I had a template I could easily customize to change the pictures of the child or parents quickly but keep the same story." That template, if it bakes in the 2:1 ratio, removes the most common failure mode of rushed stories.
What are common Carol Gray ratio mistakes school SLPs make?
The four patterns that show up most in r/slp and the 2024 survey:
- One directive per page. Looks balanced page-by-page but the whole-story count is closer to 1:1.
- Listing what NOT to do. "I will not yell" is a directive sentence in disguise and reads as punishment. Replace with a control sentence: "I can squeeze my hands together when I feel like yelling."
- Skipping perspective sentences. Without "My teacher feels worried when..." or "Most kids feel calmer when..." the story loses the theory-of-mind work that makes it a Social Story instead of a behavior script.
- Confusing partial sentences with directives. Fill-in-the-blanks ("During recess I can ___") are partial sentences and do not count toward either side of the ratio. Use them sparingly so they don't replace the descriptive backbone.
How does the ratio interact with FERPA when you draft in AI?
Most school SLPs draft the ratio scaffolding in a general AI (ChatGPT, Claude, MagicSchool) and then drop in student-specific details. Keep the student's name, photo, and any identifiable detail out of the general AI prompt until your district has a signed data privacy agreement covering that specific tool. Schools fall under FERPA, not HIPAA, but the same caution applies: a student's first name and a description of their classroom is enough to be personally identifiable when combined.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Carol Gray ratio 10:2 or 2:1?
The actual sentence ratio is 2:1 descriptive-to-directive (at minimum). The 10.2 you may have seen is the version number of Gray's 10 defining criteria, last revised in 2010. Confusing the two is the most common misread of the methodology.
What counts as a descriptive sentence?
Descriptive sentences state observable facts about the situation: who, what, where, when. Example: "Sometimes my class has a fire drill." They are the bulk of a Gray-compliant story because they teach the situation without telling the student what to do.
What counts as a directive or coaching sentence?
Directive sentences gently suggest what the student could try. Example: "I can try to follow my teacher to the door." Gray's methodology caps these at one directive sentence for every two non-directive sentences. Many rushed stories invert this and read as behavior plans.
Do I count sentences across the whole story or per page?
Across the whole story. A Gray-compliant K-5 social story can have one directive sentence in the whole piece if it is balanced by at least two descriptive, perspective, or affirmative sentences in the same story. Per-page counting tends to produce too many directives.
Why does the ratio matter for school SLPs?
If your story reads as a list of "I will" lines, a parent, supervisor, or due-process advocate can flag it as a behavior plan instead of a social narrative. The 2:1 ratio is the methodology's main guardrail against that drift.
Is the 10.2 criteria publicly documented?
Yes. Carol Gray and The Gray Center publish the 10 defining criteria of a Social Story on the official Carol Gray Social Stories site and in the "New Social Story Book" (revised editions). AFIRM and NCAEP cite the same criteria when classifying social narratives as evidence-based.
One approach for school SLPs short on time is to keep a 5-tool stack: a methodology checklist (the 10 criteria table above), a slide template that prints the sentence type next to each line for easy auditing, a folder of stock photos sorted by scenario, an AI text drafter (ChatGPT, Claude, MagicSchool, or Emoquest for one-sentence-in story output with ratio-aware scaffolding), and a delivery format your district already uses (Google Slides or PDF). Tag every sentence with its type the first few times. After a dozen stories the ratio becomes automatic.