Many children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD)experience difficulties with daily life activities such as having their fingernails and toenails trimmed. This activity can be especially difficult for those children who have sensory integration challenges.

The purpose of life skills stories is to describe the experience in a step-by-step format in order to reduce the child’s anxiety about the activity; life skills stories also state the behavior you expect from the child in a positive, upbeat way. Spec Tales: Life Skills Stories for Kids with Autism & Special Needs is a series of individual child and parent-friendly books designed to give parents some ready-made and highly functional tools for working on challenging skills.

The Spec Tales series is the brain child of Christine Ambrose (a freelance writer and editor) and Brenda Insalaco (a speech language pathologist). The two women met when Brenda began working with Christine’s son Dylan.

Life skills stories worked so very well for Dylan that Brenda and Christine decided they wanted to share these stories with all children with ASDs who might benefit from them. .