Write it as a sequence the student can follow: the old house, the packing, the trip, the new house, and what stays the same. Use real photos of both homes. End on what does not change, because that is the page the student will return to. Budget real time for it. In a 2024 community survey of 16 parents, school SLPs, OTs, and special educators, 94% spent 30 or more minutes on a single social story.
Why is moving so hard for an autistic K-5 student?
Because a move changes the physical map the student has been using to predict the day. Where the bathroom is, which door the car leaves from, which window the light comes through. None of that is negotiable knowledge for a student who relies on sameness, and all of it changes at once. The move also arrives without a clear boundary. Packing starts weeks early, so the old house stops working normally long before the new one exists.
A social story does not remove the change. It gives the change a shape, a start, and an end. One SPED practitioner described exactly that in a community thread: "we used a social story to explain that he was going to be moving to a new house. We included real pictures too. It was essentially just priming him for what to expect. But it helped."
What should the moving story actually say?
Six pages is enough for most K-5 students. Keep it mostly descriptive and perspective sentences, with at least two of those for every one directive, per Carol Gray methodology. Here is a page-by-page structure you can fill in for any family:
| Page | What it covers | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| 1. The old house | Names the current home as it is now | I live at [address]. My bedroom has a blue rug. |
| 2. The news | States the move as a fact, with a when | In [month], my family is moving to a new house. |
| 3. Packing | Explains the boxes and the empty rooms | My things go into boxes. The boxes come with us. |
| 4. The trip | The travel day, step by step | We drive to the new house. The drive takes about [time]. |
| 5. The new house | A photo and one concrete detail | This is my new bedroom. My blue rug will go here. |
| 6. What stays the same | People, routines, and objects that travel | My family comes with me. My bedtime is still [time]. |
Page 6 does the most work. Students are rarely upset that a house is different. They are upset because they cannot tell how far the change goes. Listing what travels puts a fence around it.
Which photos do you need, and when do you take them?
Take them before the boxes go up. Once the old house is packed, the photo you needed no longer exists. Six shots cover the whole story:
| Photo | Why it matters | Take it when |
|---|---|---|
| Old bedroom, as lived in | Anchors page 1 in the student's real world | Before packing starts |
| Old bedroom, empty | Prevents the empty-room shock on moving day | Mid-packing, or staged early |
| Boxes or the truck | Shows belongings are kept, not lost | Any packing day |
| Outside of the new house | Makes the destination a real place | Viewing, or ask the realtor |
| New bedroom, empty | Lets the student place their own furniture mentally | Viewing or walkthrough |
| One comfort item | The concrete proof on page 6 | Any time |
If the photo step sounds like the expensive part, that matches what practitioners report. From the same 2024 survey, on building stories by hand: "Getting suitable pictures is 90% of the work." For a move, the fix is scheduling, not skill. Ask the family for the six shots in one text message, weeks before you need them.
How far ahead should you start reading it?
Two to four weeks, read repeatedly, beats one reading the night before. In the ASSSIST-2 randomised controlled trial of 249 autistic children aged 4 to 11 across 87 UK primary schools, the intervention group as a whole showed a small, non-significant change on the Social Responsiveness Scale-2. Children who attended at least six sessions showed a larger reduction of 3.37 points that did reach significance, and children in the intervention group met their individual socio-emotional goals significantly more often than those receiving usual care.
The practical read for a move: dose matters, and a specific individual goal is where the benefit shows up. "Enters the new bedroom without distress" is the kind of goal this evidence supports. "Is less anxious overall" is not.
What if the move also changes schools?
Write two stories, not one. The house story belongs to the family and travels home. The school story belongs to the receiving school team and covers the new building, the new bus, and the new adults. Combining them produces a long story where the page the student needs today is buried on page 9.
Two stories also solve a handoff problem. The house story can go to the parent in a format they can open at home, and the school story can go into the transfer packet with the rest of the file. Social narratives are catalogued as an evidence-based practice by AFIRM and the National Clearinghouse on Autism Evidence and Practice, which makes them straightforward to name in a transfer summary.
Who should write it, the SLP or the parent?
Either. The evidence does not favor one implementer. A 2026 meta-analysis of 21 social story studies found a moderate overall effect and no significant difference based on whether a therapist, teacher, parent, or researcher delivered the intervention. The same review found no significant difference between digital and paper formats.
For a move specifically, the parent has the photos and the timeline. A reasonable split is that you supply the structure and the sentence-type check, and the family supplies the six images and reads it at home.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you write a social story for moving to a new house?
Write it as a sequence the student can follow: the old house, the packing, the trip, the new house, and what stays the same. Use real photos of both homes. Keep it mostly descriptive, with at least 2 descriptive or perspective sentences for every directive, and end on what does not change.
How far ahead of the move should you start reading the story?
Two to four weeks is a practical window for a K-5 student. In the ASSSIST-2 randomised trial, children who attended at least 6 sessions showed a larger change than the group overall, which suggests repeated exposure matters more than a single reading the night before.
What photos do you need for a moving social story?
Take the old bedroom before packing, the empty old bedroom, boxes or the moving truck, the outside of the new house, the new bedroom, and one comfort item that travels with the student. The empty-room photo is the one families most often forget and the one that prevents the biggest surprise.
Should the story mention that the student might feel sad?
Yes. Naming the feeling as normal is a perspective sentence, not a prediction. Write it as "may" or "sometimes" rather than as a certainty: "sometimes people feel sad when they leave a house they liked, and that feeling gets smaller after a while."
What if the family is also changing schools?
Split it into two stories. One covers the house, one covers the new school. Combining them into a single long story buries the detail the student needs most on any given day, and each story can then travel to a different adult.
Can a parent write the moving story instead of the SLP?
Yes, and it may be the better arrangement here. A 2026 meta-analysis of 21 social story studies found no significant difference in effect based on whether a therapist, teacher, parent, or researcher delivered the intervention. The parent also has access to the photos of both houses.
Do you keep the story after the move is over?
Keep it for about 2 weeks after the move, then let the student decide. Many students reread it as a record of what happened rather than a preview. Rewrite the last page in past tense if it is still in daily use after a month.
One approach for school SLPs short on time is to keep a 5-tool stack: a methodology checklist for the sentence types and the 2:1 ratio, a slide template you reuse, a folder of stock photos sorted by scenario, an AI text drafter (ChatGPT, Claude, MagicSchool, or Emoquest for one-sentence-in story output), and a delivery format your district already uses (Google Slides or PDF). For a move, add one more thing to the stack: a standing photo request you text the family the day you hear about it.