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GENTLY TOLD
For neurodivergent children

Social stories they can listen to, about their actual life.

Personalised audio stories for autistic and neurodivergent children aged 3–7: literal language, predictable pacing, their real routine — and you read every word first.

How it works

A rehearsal, not a lecture.

A social story walks through a hard thing before it happens — the dentist chair, the school bell, the haircut spray — so the real moment holds no surprises.

Therapists have used them for decades because they work: children do better with what they can predict. Ours are built on that published research, then made personal. You tell us the exact hard part and what already helps, and the story rehearses that — your child's worry, at the exact step it happens, with their own calming strategy practised inside the story.

What's different

Built for how they listen.

  1. Literal language, checked twice
    No metaphors, no idioms, no surprises. Every support story passes an extra check for literal language before you see it — a machine check first, then you.
  2. Audio, not another screen
    Listen at bedtime, in the car on the way to the appointment, or on their Yoto player. Repetition is how rehearsal works, and audio makes repetition easy.
  3. Their real life, not a template
    The helper in the story is who's actually coming. The calming strategy is the one that actually works. Nothing invented, ever — the story may only use facts you gave it.
  4. You read it before they hear it
    The full text, before any audio exists. Change a word that isn't quite how your family says it, or reject it and your credit comes back.
  5. Gentle suggestions, never commands
    Stories say "I can try...", never "you must". Descriptive sentences outnumber directive ones — that ratio is a rule the writer is held to, not a hope.
The stories

One for each kind of hard moment.

My Day at SchoolHelps your child understand school routines and what to expect - with clear, gentle language.Ages 3–7Making FriendsHelps your child understand social cues, turn-taking, and what friends think and feel - clearly and kindly.Ages 4–7My Big FeelingsHelps your child understand their big energy as something they can learn to steer - not a problem to fix.Ages 3–7The Focus AdventureMakes focusing fun - distraction becomes a character to outsmart, and every return to task is a victory.Ages 4–7My Quiet SpaceHelps your child find calm when the world feels too much - gentle, predictable, no surprises.Ages 3–7Brave StepsHelps your child take small, brave steps toward things that make them anxious - at their own pace, always safe.Ages 3–7My Strong SensesFrames your child's sensitive senses as a real strength - with gentle grounding techniques built in.Ages 3–7My Dentist VisitWalks through a dentist visit step by step, so the real one holds no surprises.Ages 3–7My HaircutWalks through a haircut step by step — the sounds, the feelings, and a way through.Ages 3–7

Every story comes with a parent guide naming the research behind it, and tips for using it — like agreeing the stop signal before the haircut, and honouring it the first time it's used.

The honest bit

What this is, and what it isn't.

Gently Told is a supportive tool built on social narrative research. It works alongside any professional support you have — an OT, an SLT, a psychologist — and it doesn't stand in for them. If a story ever doesn't fit how your child experiences the world, reject it: your credit comes back, and telling us why makes the next one better.

The support stories get an extra validation pass that no other tier has, because "mostly literal" isn't literal. If you're a parent of a neurodivergent child and a story gets something wrong, I genuinely want to hear about it — it's how this tier gets better.

Will · Auckland

The first story is free.

Pick the hard moment, tell us what already helps, and read it before they hear it.

Create a free storyRead the guides