Social Skills

Learning Skills

Our services will teach group members to identify the social expectations of a situation and how to respond. They will also learn to identify how their behaviors affects others by learning to observe the reactions of those around them . They will become more aware of how their behavior may cause people to have  either good or uncomfortable feelings about them.  Our goal is to assist them with learning to identify behaviors that lead to others having good feelings about them while always making safe and healthy choices.  They will learn to identify their own feelings and how to  express them in more adaptive ways. 

Curriculum

Our curriculum also focuses on social communication skills, emotional regulation, learning and understanding social cues, helping them understand social rules, increasing flexibility, and learning to express and cope with feelings. They will learn skills  that will help them interact with others and function in the community. 

Groups will provide opportunities for practicing skills such as decision-making, giving and receiving feedback, and increasing empathy.  They will be encouraged to identify their own interests and preferences while being flexible to talk about other topics and other people's interests. We try to build on their individual strengths and our services will expose consumers to a variety of social situations that will lead to more opportunities for generalization and success.

For younger consumers, the curriculum will include structured and imaginative play. We also have lessons that focus on winning and losing games, taking turns, sharing, cooperation and social rules at school. They will learn  to express opinions and ideas in adaptive ways while  learning appropriate ways  to cope with overwhelming  feelings. 

Community Outings 

The goal is to generalize acquired skills to assist consumers with socially acceptable functioning in all aspects of their environment and learn ways to get their needs met in an appropriate manner. We practice generalizing skills by going on outings in the community. We give people the opportunity to practice and interact with peer in a in a less structured and more natural setting. We often go on outings that include fun activities that motivates them to improve their skills and attend outings. 

Emotional Support

The group will also function as an emotional support for the consumers to interact with peers with similar social experiences and challenges that will allow them to form and maintain relationships within the group while working on generalizing skills outside the group setting. They will make progress in developing social communication and social interaction skills, identifying acceptable specific group behavior, feelings identification, assertiveness, self-esteem and problem solving.

Group Assignments 

Our groups are carefully matched to age and social emotional functioning. We do a thorough social-emotional assessment so we can match people to the right group for them. If we don't currently have group that meets their needs, we will put them on a wait list until we have 3-4 that matched, and we will start a new group.