SOCIAL THINKING & SOCIAL SKILLS

GROUP SPEAK is an extension of services provided to children who are currently seen in individual or dyad sessions.

The objective of group sessions is to teach children social communication skills in the context of various games and activities. The goals target to help our children improve in areas such as social skills, functional communication and leadership. Social skills are important elements for adequate adaptation. It includes skills that help a child behave appropriately in differing contexts, such as the ability to compliment others, encourage others, offer assistance, and use of polite words (e.g. please and thank you). Functional communication refers to the child’s ability to express ideas and communicate in ways that others can easily understand. It includes skills such as giving one’s full name when asked, communicating clearly, responding appropriately to questions, and taking down messages. Finally, leadership is the ability of the child to be competent in relation to good community and school adaptation. It includes skills such as being able to participate in group activities using his social skills. It also includes giving good suggestions, making decisions and problem solving skills.

Another objective of the group sessions is to help children improve in their social cognition. Social cognition is ability to take another person’s perspectives. These group sessions would benefit children who have problems with the following social pragmatic skills:

• Taking someone else’s perspective
• Eye contact
• Monitoring one’s behaviour when in a group
• Understanding that how one behave would affect how others feel
• Showing good behaviour when listening to others in a conversation
• Paying attention to and understanding non-verbal communication

Group sessions and dyad (pairing)
Skills taught during the group sessions may include:

• Learning to be part of a group
• Recognising expected and unexpected behaviours in different social settings
• Understanding that one’s behaviour can impact how others feel
• Analysing the size of a problem, and reacting appropriately to it

Individual sessions (assessment and treatment) for children with:

-Deficits in social skills
-Deficits in social cognition (i.e. perspective taking, eye contact)
-Receptive and/or expressive language delay