We take a look at our social skills group for autistic children and how they can improve a variety of aspects of their everyday lives.
About Our Social Skills Groups
At Lighthouse Autism Center, we believe in bringing together compassionate care and clinical excellence to meet each child’s unique needs. Many autistic children experience challenges with social skills, including communication, social interaction behaviors, emotional regulation, engagement, and simply meeting other peers with similar skills or interests. To better meet the social needs of our learners, Lighthouse is now offering social skills groups for autism at select center locations, including our Iowa and Nebraska centers.
These social skill groups include:
- Weekly “group” schedules that take place a minimum of 4 hours per week.
- An experienced clinical facilitator to lead the social skills group in a structured setting
- Peer-to-peer interactions with children of similar age and skill level
- Group instruction and collaboration to build practical social skill tools
- A safe and fun environment for children to meet others on the autism spectrum
Benefits of social skills groups
IEP goals for autism and social skills development vary according to every child. We know how to develop social skills in an autistic child, and our ASD and social skills development groups aim to cultivate the following competencies:
- Positive peer relations with reciprocal play and sharing
- Improved skills within sporting activities, such as teamwork and coordination
- Problem-solving
- Social judgment
- Learning and practicing real-world social and community situations
- Building long-term self-esteem and confidence
- Relationship building
- Understanding and expressing emotions
- Identifying emotions in self and others
- Identifying body language
- Non-verbal communication
- Two way conversations
- How to meet peers with common interests
- Appropriate use of humor
- Good sportsmanship
- Handling disagreements
- Handling teasing
- Working together to achieve outcomes
- Having successful get togethers
How to enroll
A member of our clinical team will meet with you for an enrollment consultation to determine if the social skills group may be a good fit for your child and family. Following that meeting, an assessment will take place to identify a child’s individual goals for the social skills group and develop targeted strategies to address their social, communication, and behavioral goals.
Once an opening becomes available in a group at your local center, your child will be enrolled. Throughout the duration of your child’s participation in the social skills group, their progress will be assessed weekly, and adjustments to their program will be made as needed. Family and caregivers will remain active in the child’s participation through monthly parent meetings with your child’s clinician to review progress and offer parent training as needed.
