AI How To: Creating Stories to Explore Difficult Behaviour

How your prompting will improve in this lesson

You can use your preferred chatbot, such as ChatGPT or Gemini.

This lesson will help you use AI to create thoughtful, engaging stories that do more than “teach a lesson”. These stories are designed to help children reflect, recognise feelings, and talk even when the reasons behind a behaviour are not yet clear.

Before this lesson (Novice stage)

Parents often:

• Look for children’s books that don’t quite match what’s happening
• Feel stuck when behaviour is worrying but the cause isn’t obvious
• Avoid certain topics because they fear blame, shame, or confrontation
• Assume they need to understand the problem fully before talking about it
• Ask AI for a story and receive something moralising or unrealistic

After this lesson (Skilled beginner using well-structured prompts)

Parents will be able to:

• Create stories that invite curiosity rather than judgment
• Use stories as a starting point for conversation, not a conclusion
• Help children talk about feelings indirectly, through characters
• Notice patterns in what children respond to, question, or relate to
• Use AI confidently to explore possibilities while staying emotionally safe

Why this matters

Some parenting challenges come with plenty of guidance. Others come with silence. This is where AI can provide much-needed support.

For example, when a child is bullying, parents often find themselves searching for relevant support that doesn’t exist. Most resources focus on the victim’s journey, not on how a child who has caused harm can reflect, rebuild trust, and grow.

Yet bullying behaviour is often rooted in personal challenges such as confidence, boundaries, and emotional regulation. These are exactly the kinds of complex, individual situations where personalised support can make a difference.

Children often lack the language or confidence to articulate why they behave in certain ways.

Direct questions like:

“Why did you do that?”

“What’s wrong with you today?”

can feel confronting, even when asked in a kind manner.

Stories offer a different path. When children hear about someone else, they can:

• Project safely onto a character
• Recognise feelings without having to own them immediately
• Correct the story, question it, or expand on it
• Rreveal worries, misunderstandings, or needs indirectly

AI is especially powerful here because it allows you to create stories that are close enough to resonate without being too close to feel exposed.

You don’t need to diagnose or label anything. The goal is understanding, not certainty.