🧠 Sovelo Stories · Tricky moments
When Someone Looks Away While I Talk
I am talking, and the other person looks somewhere else.. Read it together, at your pace. Every page is written in your child's voice.
1. Sometimes I am talking. The other person looks away — at the window, at the floor, at something else.
2. I might wonder, "Are they listening? Are they bored?"
3. Looking away can mean many things.
Why might someone look away while I talk? Looking away helps some people listen better. Something caught their attention for a second. They are thinking about what I said. We do not have enough information to know. 💡 Looking away does not have one meaning. We cannot know what someone is thinking from their eyes alone. If I want to know, I can ask.
4. I look away sometimes too. It helps me think. Ears can listen even when eyes are somewhere else.
5. If I want to check, I can ask.
6. My story stays good, whenever it gets told. And now I know: eyes are not the whole answer.
✦ Practice this story interactively — free in the Sovelo app
In the app, your child can choose what happens next, rehearse lines out loud with Spark, and try different endings — including hearing a kind "no" and being celebrated for respecting it. Parents can also create fully personalized stories.
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Sovelo Stories are original social narratives, written for neurodivergent kids and reviewed against strict guardrails: no eye-contact training, no masking, no mind-reading — and "no" is always a complete answer. Evidence-informed preparation, not a treatment. © Ezra Brown.