Like most children on the spectrum, your child may have difficulty using social skills to connect appropriately with other people. He or she may seem to be in their own world. Some of the deficits may be in the areas of joint attention (sharing a common focus with another person about an object or event), playing and sharing toys with others, understanding feelings, facial expressions and social cues, and of course making and keeping friends. Developing social skills is paramount to a child’s success.
Social skills groups are used to teach these children ways to appropriately interact with their peers. Children are given the environment, guidance, and opportunities for practice on targeted skills such as perspective-taking, conversation skills, friendship skills, problem-solving, emotion recognition, initiating and responding to greetings, giving/accepting compliments, turn-taking, sharing, asking or offering help and many others.
