Teaching Social Skills to Children with Social Deficits (PDF)

Teaching Social Skills to Children with Social Deficits Cristina Busu, MS, BCBA [email protected] 972-403-0100 Help, Hope, Solutions Helping Our Clients Make Sense of the World  • It's a matter of dealing with the people around you • A set of skills that allow us to communicate, relate and socialize with others •The personal skills needed for successful social communication and interaction • Social skills include both verbal and nonverbal forms of communication. • Social skills are the way others determine our status, consider us as potential friends or mates, and consider us for employment or promotions in the workplace This information is proprietary to Cristina Busu and shall not be copied or further distributed without prior consent.  Looked at differently depending on age group • Early ages – look at engagement • Toddlers/Preschool – look at play skills – main avenue to assess how kids interact with each other (usually goes beyond sharing and turn taking) • School age – Social thinking This information is proprietary to Cristina Busu and shall not be copied or further distributed without prior consent.  • Eye contact • Engage in back and fort exchanges • Referencing ENGAGEMENT • Sharing • Turn taking • PLAY!!!! SOCIAL SKILLS • Being part of group • Perspective taking • Other people have thoughts SOCIAL THINKING This information is proprietary to Cristina Busu and shall not be copied or further distributed without prior consent.  Social Cognition Language This information is proprietary to Cristina Busu and shall not be copied or further distributed without prior consent.  Relationship with another person Starts early First sign is EYE CONTACT EYE CONTACT – should be your first goal!! Do not “work” on eye contact by instructing the child to “Look” Strategies: Engagement is not only about TALKING!!! Position yourself face to face with your child as much as possible Every instance of EC should be considered an initiation (no language should be required at first!!) Imitate what your child is doing (No matter how silly) Label what your child is doing This information is proprietary to Cristina Busu and shall not be copied or further distributed without prior consent.  • Sharing - use, occupy, or enjoy (something) jointly with another or others • Turn Taking – back and fort exchange Play - Play is the universal language of childhood. It is through play that children understand each other and make sense of the world around them. This information is proprietary to Cristina Busu and shall not be copied or further distributed without prior consent.  Play levels: • Sensory/gross motor play • Cause and effect play • Toy play • Pretend play – thematic • Pretend play – dramatic This information is proprietary to Cristina Busu and shall not be copied or further distributed without prior consent.  • Object oriented • In isolation • Ritualistic • Non functional • Repetitive • Limited interests • Rigid This information is proprietary to Cristina Busu and shall not be copied or further distributed without prior consent.  Objectives •Watching others •Imitation •Increase repertoire of actions/actions with language •Increase initiations •Increase reciprocations •Increase # of exchanges •Decrease rigidity This information is proprietary to Cristina Busu and shall not be copied or further distributed without prior consent.  Social thinking is what we do when we interact with people: we think about them. And how we think about people affects how we behave, which in turn affects how others respond to us, which in turn affects our own emotions. But for many individuals, this process is anything but natural. And this often has nothing to do with conventional measures of intelligence. In fact, many people score high on IQ and standardized tests, yet do not intuitively learn the nuances of social communication and interaction. This information is proprietary to Cristina Busu and shall not be copied or further distributed without prior consent.  Social thinking requires perspective taking skills Perspective taking - Perceiving physical, social, or emotional situations from a point of view other than one's own - Putting yourself in someone else’s shoes Perspective taking levels - Level I – Severely Impaired Perspective Taker (SIPT) - Level II – Emerging Perspective Taker (EPT) - Level III – Impaired Interactive Perspective Taker (IIPT) This information is proprietary to Cristina Busu and shall not be copied or further distributed without prior consent.  Inability to take the perspective of others – not able to read people’s intentions, motives, thoughts Limited development of spoken language – mostly requesting No understanding of abstract language Limited attention span Limited understanding of conceptual world – create own structures that include their personal pleasures and routines (lots of self stimulatory behaviors) Little to no awareness of others – require a lot of adult participation to keep the child engaged Significant sensory challenges Difficulties with transitions Limited problem solving Limited social motivation to engage This information is proprietary to Cristina Busu and shall not be copied or further distributed without prior consent.  Inability to efficiently take the perspective of others – consider thoughts, motives Learning disabilities – manifest as weakness in reading comprehension and, written expression, math word problems and organizational skills Language difficulties – are verbal but have expressive and receptive language delays, don’t initially share their thoughts about the word spontaneously; limited in original thoughts Lack of abstract language understanding Lack of cognitive verb understanding – think, know, guess, decide, consider Limited attention span –distractibility Sensory challenges Transition challenges Lack of critical thinking skills Behavioral problems Quirkiness Social interaction initiation – impaired This information is proprietary to Cristina Busu and shall not be copied or further distributed without prior consent.  Fluid verbal language skills – often using expanded vocabulary Have difficulty following the “hidden rules” (free time in the classroom, recess) Struggle with complex interpretation of social academics – reading comprehension especially writings where many different people’s points of view are presented Difficulties with organizational skills Weakness in developing friendships and working as part of the group Difficulties simultaneously reading the social cues of the face, body, voice, spoken language and environmental context. Excessive competitiveness – insist on winning all the games, may become upset if don’t May not be in touch of own /other’s emotions – limited in recognizing own emotions and making decisions based on interpreting other people’s emotional states. May not initiate language to problem solve or seek attention from others Sensory issues This information is proprietary to Cristina Busu and shall not be copied or further distributed without prior consent.