HELPING CHILDREN WITH SOCIAL COMMUNICATION DIFFICULTIES

Namaste(hello), I am here to talk about what works best for improving social skills in our super stars,why to wait!!!!! maximize your arousal level......... ready start 1,2,3

Social skill development is an essential curricular area for students with autism and other related disorders, and is also a crucial component of any intervention plan for changing problem behavior.

I know you are curious to know the strategies for social skill development, so do I;

ü  When addressing social skills, it is essential that the child have the opportunities to participate and interact in a variety of natural environments.

ü  Children with autism and other related disabilities need explicit teaching to develop social skills and understanding social situations.

ü  One of the most helpful methods for teaching social skills is the use of social stories. A social story is a description of a social situation which includes the social cues and appropriate responses and is written for a specific situation.

ü  Visual supports should be an integral part of a comprehensive social skill program for our children.

ü  Cognitive picture rehearsal: another instructional strategy which presents information in a visual format. This method involves presenting a sequence of behaviors in the form of pictures or photographs with an accompanying support. The child is guided through repeated practice of the sequence of behaviors.

ü  Educating peers: this can be done informally or in a more structured way. Young children can be provided with prompts to initiate and maintain interaction with autistic children.

ü  Peer modeling: allowing or providing structured opportunities to children with autism to copy the model who is demonstrating the selected social skill.

ü  Peer initiation:  this procedure involves teaching socially competent peers to initiate interaction with child with autism. It’s not only structures interaction between socially competent students with those with autism; it provides additional skill development opportunities for our children.

ü  Group therapy: developing social skill instruction with in a structured small group setting. Steps to be followed  for group setting:

J Assessment and identification of skills for instruction

JIdentifying the skill and skill components and when they are used

J Modeling the skill

JOpportunities to practice

J Strategies for generalization

ü  Direct skill instruction:  teaching selected skill in a natural environment. some important steps to be followed

JTask analysis of the skill considered important to the child in natural setting

J Sequential teaching of each of the task, by using modeling, repeated trails, prompts and reinforcement in a natural setting

J Generalization in to different settings

ü  Antecedent prompting or teacher or parent mediation: delivery of an initiation prompts by the teacher, followed by reinforcement to the child with autism for successful engagement in positive social interaction.

ü  Role play: helping child to role play the situation or selected social skill

ü  Provide opportunities to increase independent participation in a variety of events.

ü  Self management: teaching children to monitor their own behaviors, this can be done by facilitating independency by gradually reducing prompts and increasing the time to acquire the selected skill.
i will talk more about social stories in near future......bye bye take care:):)