Named frameworks, not vague magic
Every story leans on research that already has a name: Gottman, Shrodes, Perry. Here's how each piece fits together.
The child is the variable, not the theme
Bibliotherapy research (Shrodes, 1949 onward) has long shown children process difficulty more easily when the protagonist mirrors them, not a generic "kid," but their name, their sibling, their actual dinosaur obsession. We collect just enough detail to make that true, and nothing more.
Shrodes' bibliotherapy framework
Name it, feel it, practice it, in that order
Drawing on Bruce Perry's work on regulation before reasoning, every emotional-learning story follows the same beat structure: the feeling shows up and is named plainly, a trusted adult helps the child sit with it, and the story ends with the child trying the skill themselves, never lectured, always practiced.
Perry's regulate-relate-reason sequence
Every story follows a structure. Here is the structure.
Social narratives are a recognized evidence-based practice for autistic learners (NPDC 2014, NCAEP 2020). Each narrative is structured and individualized around one skill or situation.
Evidence-based practice (NPDC 2014, NCAEP 2020)
Gottman's emotion coaching, illustrated
John Gottman's five steps of emotion coaching (noticing, connecting, naming, listening, problem-solving) map almost exactly onto a picture-book arc. We use that structure so the "big feeling" pages a therapist would want to see are already built in, not bolted on.
Gottman emotion coaching