Frequently Asked Questions

Sammy Stories is a free platform of evidence-based social stories for autistic children, designed to help them navigate everyday situations. Each story follows clinical frameworks to teach replacement behaviors through gentle, child-led narratives. Stories feature Sammy and his friends — characters who look, sound, and feel like the children reading them.

Sammy Stories is for any child who benefits from social stories, and the parents, caregivers, teachers, and therapists who support them. While designed primarily for autistic children aged 3–12, the stories use universal social-emotional concepts that benefit all children. Three communication levels — full text, simplified, and visual-only with AAC symbols — ensure access for all readers, including non-verbal children. Parents looking for free autism resources will find a complete library ready to use.

Yes — completely free, forever. No paywalls, no ads, no premium tiers. withSammy.org is a mission-driven project built by parents for every family. We believe every child deserves free social stories and autism resources regardless of their family’s financial situation.

Sammy Stories started as a personal project by a parent after their son Sammy’s autism diagnosis. Unable to find tools that were clinically sound, culturally representative, and accessible, they built what they wished existed. What started for one family became a mission for every family.

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Social Stories™ are a structured intervention developed by Carol Gray in 1991 to help autistic individuals understand social situations, expectations, and appropriate responses. They use a specific ratio of sentence types (descriptive and coaching) written from the child’s perspective. Sammy Stories follows Carol Gray’s Social Stories™ 10.4 criteria, the latest evolution of the methodology.

Yes. Social Stories™ are classified as an evidence-based practice by the National Autism Center’s National Standards Project (2015) and reviewed by the What Works Clearinghouse. Our implementation is guided by Carol Gray’s Social Stories™ 10.4 criteria with automated validation, BCBA functional behavior assessment principles, SLP best practices for concrete and literal language, OT sensory processing frameworks, and neurodiversity-affirming language standards.

AI assists in story generation, but every story passes through a multi-stage clinical validation pipeline before reaching your child — not a single chatbot producing unchecked content. See the “How AI Works” section below for how this process works.

Carol Gray’s Social Stories™ 10.4 is the latest evolution of the Social Stories methodology. Key principles include: only two sentence types (Descriptive and Coaching), a Story Rating that ensures descriptive sentences significantly outnumber coaching ones, Social Humility as a central philosophy where stories describe rather than prescribe, a focus on celebrating what the child already does well, and a narrative arc that moves from recognizing strengths to gentle discovery.

Accessibility is foundational, not an afterthought. Every page is designed to meet or exceed WCAG 2.1 AAA standards with 7:1 contrast ratios, 44px minimum touch targets, full keyboard navigation, screen reader support, no flashing content (seizure safety), a sensory-friendly color palette, reduced motion support, reading aids (bionic reading, reading ruler, emotion-based colors), visual supports including AAC symbols for non-verbal communication, and printable PDF stories for offline use.

Sammy Stories is designed with privacy-by-default. No child accounts are required to read stories. We do not use ad tech or third-party tracking cookies. Preferences and reading progress are stored locally on your device. We use privacy-first analytics (Cloudflare Web Analytics) to understand aggregate platform usage and improve the product — no personal data is collected. No data is sold or shared with third parties. We comply with COPPA and PIPEDA. See our Privacy Policy for full details.

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Browse the story library by category — transitions, emotions, social skills, daily routines, sensory, and challenging behavior. Choose a story relevant to an upcoming situation — Social Stories work best as antecedent interventions, meaning you read them before the situation occurs. Whether your child needs a social story for school routines, sharing and taking turns, managing big feelings, or preparing for a dentist visit, you can find or create a story that fits. Stories can also be downloaded as printable PDFs for use at home, school, or on the go.

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AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) symbols are picture-based visual supports used alongside or instead of text. Sammy Stories uses symbols from the ARASAAC library color-coded with the Modified Fitzgerald Key system — an industry-standard color scheme where word types have consistent colors (yellow for people, green for verbs, orange for nouns, blue for descriptors). This helps children who use non-verbal communication to follow and understand the stories independently.

Yes — the story creator lets you describe a situation your child faces, and our AI pipeline generates a clinically validated social story tailored to your needs. Custom stories pass through the same automated clinical checks as our library stories. You can also download custom stories as printable PDFs. See “Known Limitations” below for important context about AI-generated content.

Sammy Stories features four characters designed to reflect the diversity of children who use them: Sammy (a Nigerian boy and the primary protagonist), Mara (a thoughtful European girl who loves reading and calm spaces), Dem (an energetic South Asian boy who loves movement and trucks), and Zee (a creative girl and Sammy’s sister, always with her plush owl). Each character has their own accent color and personality.

Meet the characters →