Comic strip conversations

Also called Comic Strip Conversations, Conversation drawing, Stick-figure conversations

Drawing a conversation as stick figures, speech bubbles and thought bubbles, to work out what went wrong in it and what could go differently.

What it is

A comic strip conversation is a conversation drawn while it's talked about. Stick figures for the people. Speech bubbles for what was said. Thought bubbles for what each person was thinking, which is the part that can't be seen and is usually where the trouble was. Colours for feelings, chosen by the person: red for angry, blue for sad, whatever they decide.

Carol Gray developed them alongside social stories. Where a social story prepares for something ahead, a comic strip conversation goes back over something that has already happened, or rehearses a difficult one to come, and makes the invisible parts visible.

Who it can help

Autistic children and young people, mainly from about seven upwards, who can talk or write and who find other people's intentions hard to read. It's used after a playground incident, a misunderstanding with a teacher, a fall-out with a friend. Adults use it too, sometimes drawing their own.

It needs a person who can engage with a drawing and a conversation about it, so it's not for someone at the earliest stages of communication. And it needs an adult willing to draw badly in front of a child, which is the only qualification.

How it works

Adult and person sit side by side with paper and coloured pens. The adult asks what happened and draws it as it's told: who was there, what was said, in bubbles. Then the key question, "What were you thinking?", goes in a thought bubble. Then "What do you think they were thinking?", in theirs. That question is where the light usually goes on: the other person's thought turns out to be different from what was assumed.

Feelings are coloured in. A speech bubble that was said angrily is drawn in red. Once the whole exchange is on the page, the pair look at it and ask what could have been said instead, and draw that version too.

The drawing does two jobs: it slows a fast, upsetting exchange down to something that can be examined, and it takes the feeling out of the adult's voice and puts it on the paper, where it's safer.

Getting started

Keep plain paper and a pack of coloured pens where difficult conversations tend to happen. Draw when the person is calm, hours or a day after the event, not in the middle of it.

Let the person hold the pen for their own bubbles if they want to. Their drawing, their colours, their words.

Keep the page. The next time something similar happens, the old drawing is a reference: "Remember what Sam was thinking last time?"

Where to get help

Carol Gray's site describes the method and the symbol set she uses. The National Autistic Society has a clear introduction for parents and teachers. School autism outreach teams and NHS speech and language therapists often use them and can model the first one with you. Ambitious about Autism supports families with practical strategies.