social thinking, social issues and social skills groups 11 10[1]

Social Thinking, Social Issues Social Thinking, Social Issues and Social Skills Groupsand Social Skills Groups

1Asperger's Association of New England

Instructor:Robin Lurie-Meyerkopf M.Ed.Associate Director AANE617-393-3824 x11robin.lurie-meyerkopf@aane.org

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What are social skills? ◦ Why do we want/need them?◦ How do we get them?◦ How far off are the AS kids?

The Friendship Algorithm Video What do we need to teach?

◦ Index card Activity◦ Unwritten social rules (hidden curriculum)

The Boy Inside◦ Social communication/ pragmatics◦ Social thinking◦ Social skills groups

Video - Brick

Jed Baker videos What do we need to teach (con’t)

◦ Self understanding and self advocacy◦ How we generalize◦ Home/school communication and collaboration

Social Stories/Power Cards - group activity

What are social skills?What are social skills? Working and thinking in a group, how to use and interpret

language (verbal and non-verbal) to further understand communicative context.

Michelle Garcia Winner

To promote social learning and understanding for individuals with autism spectrum disorders and their families. This support should utilize strengths and be a cooperative effort between the individual, their family and school.

Carol Gray

Social skills focus on explicit teaching - using tools and techniques for improving the students’ social communication with peers and adults, as well as strategies for adapting to more complex life and social situations.

AANE article

Why do we want/need them?Why do we want/need them?

Get along in Life!Differing amounts of social interaction.

4Asperger's Association of New England 2010

Personal definition of “Friendship”

Adult friendship researchCompassionate friends

*information gathered from www.yourlittleprofessor.com

Michelle Garcia Winner CCC/SLPMichelle Garcia Winner CCC/SLP

“While we all want our students to easily learn the skills of personal problem solving, personal advocacy, and social relatedness to develop lasting friendships and to work successfully with their classroom peers, it is unrealistic to think we can do the easily or quickly.”

Michelle Garcia Winner:Michelle Garcia Winner:

“There is nothing more complex to teach than teaching social thinking and related skills to persons who are not born with solid social cognition that enables them to learn all of this information intuitively.”

Michelle Garcia Winner, speech language pathologist and specialist for persons with social thinking challenges, is internationally recognized as an innovative therapist, energetic and enthusiastic workshop presenter and author based in San Jose, California.

Tony Attwood - How far off are the AS Tony Attwood - How far off are the AS kids?kids?

A qualitative impairment in social interaction:

Failure to develop friendships that are appropriate to the child’s developmental level.

Impaired use of non-verbal behavior such as eye gaze, facial expression and body language to regulate a social interaction.

Lack of social and emotional reciprocity and empathy.

Impaired ability to identify social cues and conventions.

Tony Attwood - How far off are the AS Tony Attwood - How far off are the AS kids?kids?

A qualitative impairment in subtle communication skills:

Fluent speech but difficulties with conversation skills and a tendency to be pedantic, have an unusual prosody and to make a literal interpretation

The Friendship AlgorithmThe Friendship Algorithm

Video – The Big Bang Theory

Index Card ActivityIndex Card Activity

Think about a student you have had with AS. Draw a line down the middle of the index card.Think about an AS (diagnosed or undiagnosed)

student.On the left write down some of this students

strengths (try to think of at least 3!)On the right side write down some of the

challenges.We will re-visit this later!

Asperger's Association of New England 2010 12

What do we need to teach?What do we need to teach?

◦ Unwritten social rules (hidden curriculum)

◦ Social communication/ pragmatics◦ Social thinking◦ Social skills groups (where, why,

how)◦ Self understanding and self advocacy◦ Generalization of skills◦ Home/school communication and

collaboration

Unwritten social rules (hidden Unwritten social rules (hidden curriculum)curriculum)

“Hidden Curriculum”What are good social skills?

Elsa Abele MS CCC/SLP Elsa Abele MS CCC/SLP

"Rather than narrowly defining educational success as helping someone be a successful learner, we need to focus also on how children handle the social aspect of schooling. What do you do with a child who gets high academic scores but has trouble socially?"

AS videoAS video

Video/Discussion The Boy Inside

Asperger's Association of New England 2010 16

Social Communication/ PragmaticsSocial Communication/ Pragmatics

An individual with pragmatic problems may:

say inappropriate or unrelated things during conversations

tell stories in a disorganized wayhave little variety in language use

Pragmatics is One PiecePragmatics is One Piece

It is one part of a complete program!

Social Thinking from Michelle Garcia Winner’s Social Thinking Curriculum

Social Thinking® is required prior to the development of social skills.

Successful social thinkers consider◦ points of view◦ emotions◦ thoughts ◦ beliefs ◦ prior knowledge ◦ intentions of others

Perspective taking (considering the perspectives of others). ◦ intuitive in people with intact neurology◦ understanding the meanings behind the message

It is an intelligence that integrates information across home, work and community settings - something we usually take for granted!

Social Skills GroupsSocial Skills Groups

Explicitly teach skillsTime & opportunity to practice new skillsAccepting environment

(“Lunch Bunch”)

Social Skills (continued)Social Skills (continued)

Social skills are not taught quickly or easily!

What’s needed:◦ repetition ◦a skilled group leader ◦a structured environment ◦specific instruction◦good communication

Asperger's Association of New England 2010

Social Skills (continued)Social Skills (continued)

Social skills are not taught quickly or easily – need repetition, a skilled group leader, a structured environment and specific instruction.

Social Skills groups may or may not include typically developing students.

Practice skills in a natural setting

Important Information!Important Information!

If the children don’t connect in some way then they will not want to come to group, so choosing the group members is an important step in helping our children develop some social skills.

24Getting Started

The Interview:◦The children you have selected need to be

interviewed

What do we do?

Start with an hour *three 20 minute blocks*

◦20 minutes for “chat time”◦20 minutes for a lesson or to practice a skill

from a previous lesson◦20 minutes for “game time”

Acceptance

Brick Video

LunchLunch27

Jed Baker Videos

Self Understanding and Self AdvocacySelf Understanding and Self Advocacy

The young child with ASD needs help to begin to understand their own issues

As AS children grow they need to use self-advocacy skills◦ attend a few minutes of their IEP meetings◦ write a letter to the IEP team letting them

know what’s working, what’s not◦ High School students need to be participating in their IEPor 504 meetings

Self Understanding and Self AdvocacySelf Understanding and Self Advocacy

Understanding that everyone has strengths and weaknesses but others have learned how to compensate.

Not to use their disorder as an excuse to behave badly but to help others understand why they may act a certain way - a student may learn to say because of a social misunderstanding, “I’m really mad at you, I feel like hitting you!” instead of hitting. (picture of scale)

Learning and using Emotional Regulation Strategies!

GeneralizationGeneralization

Appling a learned skill to a new setting, person, or situation.

To generalize as defined by DOE as, ”repeated instruction and practice in multiple environments with a variety of materials and people, in order to master a single skill”…DOE Advisory.2007

Generalization StrategiesGeneralization Strategies

Teach skillPractice new skill independently, in small

group, then larger groupPractice in multiple settingsEducate teachers Reinforce skill

Home/school Communication and Home/school Communication and CollaborationCollaboration

Both Parents & TeachersBe a team – keep lines of communication open

to help with stress, misunderstandings, organization, and anything that can fall under the definition of hidden curriculum.

When everyone (including the student) works together success can be achieved.

Social Stories and Power Cards Social Stories and Power Cards

Learning to use Social Stories™ and Power Cards can be powerful tools for learning about behavior and help with misunderstandings.

These techniques use LOGIC to help guide good decision making!

Social Stories Social Stories

Carol Gray’s Social Stories™ can be extremely helpful in having children understand specific situations or new experiences.

http://www.thegraycenter.org/socialstories.cfm

Social StoriesSocial Stories™™ continued continued

It is sometimes easy to assume that a social story™ will “fix” a confusing situation. Remember it is a helpful tool and often the story needs to be read repeatedly for it to be clearly understood by the student.

Power Cards Power Cards

Power cards are often used in place of Social Stories™ for older children, to help with misinterpretations of social situations. They can be tailored to any special interest and kept by the ASD person to be used when needed.

Index Card ActivityIndex Card Activity

Take out the index card from earlier in the workshop.Review the strengths and challenges.Now think of either a Social Story™ or a Power Card you could write that would address one of the challenges.

Words or Thoughts?

Words Out Loud

Thoughts

Cartooning

What I think

What I say

What I think

What I say

41Change in Routine Card

Notice:__________ will be changed on____________ because________________________________________________________________________________________________The new ________________________is _______________________.

Calvin and Asperger’s

Remember there is a gap between the chronological age and the social/emotional age!

CHALLENGE for Teachers:

Think about one new strategy you can use when you get back to your class.

Asperger’s Association of New England

www.aane.org T: 617-393-3824 866-597-2263 85 Main Street, Suite 101, Watertown, MA02472-4409

Changing perspectives – changing lives!

Organizations

AANE – Asperger’s Association of New England – there is a NH chapter

www.aane.org ASA – NH The Autism Society of America also has a NH chapter www.autism-society-nh.org Easter Seals – contact Elizabeth Webster for more info www.nh.easterseals.com IOD – Institute on Disabilities hosts a yearly summer conference www.iod.unh.edu Parent Information Center (PIC) www.parentinformationcenter.org SERESC - Southeastern Regional Education Service Center www.seresc.k12.nh.us

Bibliography - websites

www.baltimorepsych.com/aspergers.htmwww.isntautistics.orgwww.med.yale.edu/chldstdy/autism/

astreatments.htmlwww.tonyattwood.comwww.socialthinking.org www.iod.unh.edu

Bibliography

Armstrong,Thomas (2000) Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom. Assoc. for Supervision& Curriculum Development

Attwood, Tony (1998) Asperger’s Syndrome, A guide for Parent’s and Professionals. Jessica Kingsley Press

Baker, Linda J. and Welkowitz Lawrence A. editors (2005) Asperger’s Syndrome Intervening in Schools, Clinics, and Communities. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers

Barnhill, Gena P. (2002) Right Address…..Wrong Planet Children with Asperger’s Syndrome Becoming Adults. Autism/Asperger’s Publishing Company

Baron-Cohen, Simon. 2002. Mind Reading: An Interactive Guide to Emotions (CD). Jessica Kingsley Pub.

Bolick, Teresa (2001) Asperger’s Syndrome and Adolescence, Asperger’s Syndrome and Young Children. Fair Winds Press

Bibliography (con’t)

Buron, Kari Dunn. 2006. When My Worries Get Too Big! AAPC. Buron, Kari Dunn and Curtis, Mitzi. 2003. The Incredible 5-Point

Scale. AAPC. Haddon, Mark (2003) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-

Time. Vintage Books – a Division of Random House Howlin,P.:Baron-Cohen, S.:Hadwin,J.(1999) Teaching Children with

Autism to Mind Read, A Practical Guide. Wiley and Sons: New York Jackson, Luke (2002) Freaks, Geeks, and Asperger’s Syndrome.

Jessica Kingsley Press Leicester City Council, England (1998) Asperger’s Syndrome –

Practical Strategies for the Classroom. The National Autism Society (England) Levine,M. (2002)

Levine,M. (2002) A Mind at a Time. Simon and Shuster: New York

Bibliography (con’t)

McAfee, Jeanette, M.D. (2002) Navigating the Social World Moyes,R.(2001) Incorporating Social Goals in the Classroom.

Jessica Kingsley Press Nazeer, Kamran. (2006) Send in the Idiots: Stories from the

Other Side of Autism. Bloomsbury Publishing: New York and London

Shore, Stephen (2004) Ask and Tell: Self Advocacy and Disclosure for People on the Autism Spectrum. Autism/Asperger’s Publishing Company

Winner, Michelle Garcia (2005) Think Social a Social Thinking Curriculum for School-Age Students. Michelle Garcia Winner - Publisher

social thinking, social issues and social skills groups 11 10[1]

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