Giving Everyone Room - Understanding Personal Space - Social Story
The Giving Everyone Room – Understanding Personal Space social story is designed to help young learners understand and respect personal space in different settings. Through simple, clear language and engaging visuals, this resource teaches students about personal boundaries, how to recognise when someone needs space, and how to communicate their own needs politely.
Students will explore why personal space is important, how to adjust their distance based on the situation, and strategies to respond when someone invades their space or when they need more room themselves.
This social story is ideal for explicit social-emotional learning lessons, behaviour management, and supporting neurodivergent students who may need guidance in understanding social norms.
Learning goals
- We are learning to identify the skills of cooperating, collaborating and negotiating, why they are important and how to recognise them in a variety of scenarios.
- We are learning to express and describe our emotions.
- We are learning to seek, give, or deny permission respectfully when sharing possessions or personal space.
- We are learning to use personal and social skills to interact.
- We are learning to identify and describe different emotional responses.
Curriculum alignment
Explore how to seek, give or deny permission respectfully when sharing possessions or personal space
ACPPS004 8.4Practise personal and social skills to interact positively with others
ACPPS005 8.4Identify and describe emotional responses people may experience in different situations
Australian Curriculum covers QLD / SA / WA / NT / TAS / ACT.
Differentiation
Modifications
• Print in A3 for a large shared classroom resource or A5 for individual booklets.
• Provide role-play scenarios for students to practise appropriate personal space in different settings.
• Offer the black-and-white version as a colouring activity to reinforce learning.
Extensions
• Encourage students to draw or write about a time they needed more space and how they handled it.
• Use with puppets or figurines to act out social situations and appropriate responses.
• Integrate with classroom rules discussions about respecting personal boundaries.