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This is small groups of kids with a SLP or other worker and they "learn" certain social skills. Has anyone tried this type of class? Has it helped? Any opinions before I blow a wad....

DS7 is somewhere between PDD-NOS and hyperlexic and a lot like me -- a big fat dork when it comes to dealing with people :)

We really want to focus on unsaid social cues and dealing with frustration/stressful situations. Yes, I understand the irony of asking about social skills on a homeschooling board where we are trying to avoid some of the "socialization" that happens at school!

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My son did a social skills group a few years ago. It was just him and another boy. This was back when my son was first diagnosed with Asperger's (he was later undiagnosed). I don't think it helped much but he did sort of make friends with the other boy. My son's social skills aren't really that bad so I don't think he had enough room for improvement so that it was obvious. (Does that make any sense?)

 

I think what has helped most is just talking with him about social issues. I make it a point to mention everything (in private, of course) and *not* assume that he knows something about social cues or situations because "everyone" just knows.

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My son participated in a group last year and I feel it really helped him. He has expressive language problems and one of the number one recommendations for children with expressive-receptive language disorder is social skills classes. My son really needed to be very specifically taught some things about group dynamics and conversational skills that others just pick up on naturally. Prior to the social skills group, I had noticed that he was playing with younger and younger children. Afterwards, he started playing with children his own age again as well as younger and older children.

 

Lisa

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We didn't have a good experience with social skills groups. My son attended one for the summer right after he was diagnosed with Aspergers at the age of 10. They did a lot of practice on social scripting (introductions, conversation starters, exiting a conversation). It backfired for Austin. He is a rule-follower, and saw the scripting that he was taught in the social skills class as the 'rules'. It all worked just fine during the social skills group because all of the other kids in the class knew the 'rules'. But when he tried to extend his social skills 'rules' into the real world, nobody else knew the 'rules'. He would offer his hand to a 10 year old boy, and say, "Hello, I'm Austin. It's nice to meet you." and the other boy would look at him like he was nuts. And he wouldn't offer his hand back. Austin would stand there with his hand out, repeating that line, waiting for the other person to say their line and shake his hand. It really made him appear MORE autistic.

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