Social Skills Group?
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Social Skills Group?
| Fri, 03-02-2007 - 11:02am |
Has your child ever been in a social skills group therapy program? Alex's dr. suggested he get into a group, as things are going from bad to worse for him socially at school. Now that he's in the 4th grade, it's becoming painfully obvious to him that he has no friends. And of course with his behavior the way it is, it's no wonder. (I'm forever saying to him 'do unto others as they would do unto you', but he just doesn't get it).
The closest place that offers such a program is an hour away, and our insurance is pretty pitiful when it comes to mental health coverage, but I will do anything at this point to help the poor guy. It's breaking my heart.
Any experience with these kinds of groups?
TIA,
Laurie

Hi Laurie,
Yes we have found social skills groups to be helpful.
There are reasons I have been angry about having to have ds in segregated special needs private schools, but the friends part is a reason to like them. In many ways, the best friends for our kids are other kids like them, because then the playing ground is more equal. Also, special needs schools provide lots of social skills groups!
Is your son on an IEP? You should be able to get social skills group programming through your school, bring in an autism expert, create a lunch group. We also go to an outside group, so that our ds gets more than one group of kids to practise with.
As most of our kid's problems come from troubles interacting, it makes sense that much of their education needs to be in this area. And by law, the social skills area must be addressed, as it affects education.
But I am aware that GETTING school districts to include it can be rough going.
Sara
It sounds to me like a social skills group should be on his IEP, and that the school should be providing that service.
My 3rd grader finally has a social skills group at his public school, now.
Nathan is in 2nd grade and is also in a social skills class. They tell me he has made great progress with the other kids as well as with the other students in his class. I have his 3yr review meeting next week, and then we have to schedule the IEP after that. So i will know more after that too.
I think its been a great help for him too, just continuing on with what i am teaching him at home. He does ok with interacting with me and his brother. He just has difficulties with other people. He still prefers to be a loner, but is at least learning the skills he needs when he is interacting....so that is important!
michelle
Adam is in a group titled "let's play" and it's a social skill group that meets once a week for an hour.It's done at his therepy center where he gets OT and Speech. He just got into a tumbling class there too and it's been a big help there too. Since he is still so young (3) it's making a huge impact on his social skill building. At home we play and take turns on board games. Our issue is his peers. Actually today picking him up from school he will say good bye to teachers and peers. Sadly some don't respond unless prompted to. I feel it confuses him. He's in a special ed preschool. I have another year and then I am debating holding back from kidergarden for and extra year. They are implementing an inclusive preschool w/special ed with ALL students having and IEP. It's a pay program and that's not an issue, just looking at options.
I LOVE that type of therepy for kids. I feel it's vital.
GOOD LUCK
Nora
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I too was thinking you should investigate a social skills group through school. I have a few reasons for this. Though the social skills group an hour away may be good and may teach him some skills it is not a guaranteed thing.
1) One downfall of social skills group is the lack of generalization. If they are separate from the school there is no guarantee that the skills will transfer over to his natural environment. By doing it in school if you monitor it well it could be done in a way to foster increase of skills in that environment.
2) He would be grouped with kids whom he has more access too. A once a week group is hard to increase relationships with because they only see them 1 time a week rather than daily for that practice.
3) While I agree that our kids often make friends more readily with kids who are like them, it is going to be very hard to foster and nurture a relationship when it is an hour away. It would be better if he can be grouped with similar kids were it can be fostered nearby.
4) You have to weigh the drive time and the group with all the pros and cons. Is the positive effects he gets from it going to be worth the drive and the cost.
Some other options as well are to put him in a local mainstream type group and set your self up as his social skills coach and 1:1. This is actually what we are finding works best with Mike. We practice skills or review "rules" of appropriate behavior at home and we have signals for when we are out. Some things have been successful and some have bombed drastically, but he is definitely learning skills. The thing we have found that works best thus far is Karate. Team sports are a huge no no. I haven't been brave enough to do boy scouts or similar yet, but maybe soon.
It isn't that a social skills group is a bad idea. It is just one of those things worth weighing out. I have heard criticism on local social skills groups based on what I told you. Mostly the generalization. Though kids could learn skills in the groups it didn't generalize.
Renee