Little Rehearsal
A first dental visit social story you can print
Twelve pictures with one short sentence each, from the front desk to the sticker at the end. Read it together a few times before the day.
Free PDF, 7 pages, US Letter (it also fits A4). No sign-up.
What’s inside
A cover with a line for your child’s name, then twelve numbered panels, two to a page. Each panel is one step of a first visit, said the way a child would say it.
Cover, with a line for a name 
Going there, and saying hello 
Waiting, and the big chair 
The chair, and the dentist 
Opening wide, and the mirror 
The brush, and the rinse 
Asking for a break, and all done
How to use it
- Start a few days ahead.Read it once a day in the days before the visit, at a calm time. The morning of the appointment is too late for a first reading.
- Read the words as they are.Short, literal sentences in a child’s own voice are what make a story like this work. Read them the same way each time.
- Skip what doesn’t fit.Offices differ. Ask yours what a first visit includes and fold away any page that won’t happen.
- Practice the break signal.Panel 11 says a raised hand means stop. Try it at home, then tell the dental team your child knows it.
- Photos of the real office are better still.These pictures show a pretend clinic. If the office has photos of its own rooms and people, look at those too.
The same visit, as a game
At Wren Creek, our pretend clinic, a child says hello, packs a kit and tries the mirror, the polisher and the air on Pip. It runs in the browser on a phone. Nothing to install and no sign-up.
Play the visitRun a dental practice?
A story lands harder when the name on the cover is the office the child is about to visit.
Get this story with your practice’s name on it, free. Or see your own rooms turned into a game that families play before the visit.
More free printables
- What happens at the dentist: picture cards
- Brave visit reward chart
- Dentist coloring pages
- Elsewhere, and also free: the Autism Speaks dental tool kit and the University of Iowa’s picture schedule for a dental visit, which you fill with photos of your own office.