Social Skills Training for Children

Social Skills Training for Children

Social skills for children: We use social skills daily to communicate and interact with others. These include verbal and non-verbal communication such as speech, gestures, facial expressions, and body language. A person has strong social skills if he knows how to behave in social situations and understands written and implicit rules when communicating with others. Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), pervasive developmental disorder (not otherwise specified), and Asperger's have difficulties with social skills.

Why are social skills important for children?

Social skills for children are critical in maintaining positive interactions with others. Many of these skills are important for building and maintaining friendships. Social interaction does not always work smoothly, and a child must be able to apply appropriate strategies, such as conflict resolution when difficulties arise in communication. It is also important for children to have "empathy" (i.e., the ability to put themselves in someone else's shoes and identify with their feelings) because it allows them to respond to the feelings of others with understanding and concern.

What building blocks are needed to develop social skills?

The following things are the building blocks for developing social skills:

Attention and concentration: Sustained effort, performing activities without distraction, and the ability to stay focused long enough to complete a task.

Receptive (Comprehensible) Language: Understanding of a language.

Expressive (utilitarian) language: the use of language to communicate desires, needs, thoughts, and ideas through speech, gestures, or alternative forms of communication.

Play skills: Voluntary participation in self-motivated activities that usually involve pleasure and enjoyment, where the activity may, but not necessarily, be goal-directed.

Pre-linguistic skills: the ways we communicate without words, including gestures, facial expressions, imitation, joint attention, and eye contact.

Self-regulation: the ability to acquire, maintain, and change the feeling, behavior, attention, and activity level appropriate to a task or situation in a socially acceptable manner.

Executive Occupation: Higher-order reasoning and thinking ability.

How do you know if your child has problems with social skills?

If a child struggles with social skills, they may: use brief eye contact instead of making constant eye contact or staring at you.

Can't take turns talking with your communication partner.

Fight with appropriate body language (e.g. stand too close/far from the other person).

Do not use polite forms of communication (such as thank you, hello, and goodbye).

Frequently interrupt others.

Do not keep the discussion off-topic or make inappropriate comments during the discussion.

Do not ask relevant questions.

Repeats information in conversation and generally talks about topics of personal interest (e.g. trains, favorite TV show/person).

Show little or no interest in what the other person has to say.

Does not understand jokes and language such as sarcasm, idioms, and non-verbal information.

Be very literal (e.g., if you say "Can you open the door?"

Speak with unusual speed, stress, rhythm, intonation, pitch, and/or voice. You cannot understand different tones of voice or read facial signals.

Don't ask for clarification if they are confused or if the situation is unclear to them.

Generally, discloses (too) personal information to unknown people or strangers.

Can't seem to know others and can't read other people's emotions based on their verbal and non-verbal cues.

Fails to respond to bullying, anger, failure, and disappointment.

They cannot adapt or change their language according to the communication situation.

They lack empathy and imagination.

They look self-centered and do not understand the consequences of their actions.

What other problems can arise if a child has difficulties with social skills?

If a child has difficulties with social skills, they may also have difficulties with:

Behavior: the child's actions, usually about their environment (e.g., the child may behave like refusing to go to social events, including a birthday party, or behaving inappropriately, e.g., with a partner pulling hair or shouting at someone for attention).

Sensory processing: a child may have difficulty participating or concentrating, and may have difficulty interpreting information language: the use of language to communicate desires, needs, thoughts, and ideas through speech, gestures, or alternative forms of communication.

Articulation: Clarity of speech, sounds, and spoken language.

Fluency: The smoothness or flow with which sounds, syllables, words, and sentences are produced during speech.

Voice: The sound we hear when someone speaks, which is unique to each person.

Self-regulation: the ability to acquire, maintain, and change the feeling, behavior, attention, and activity level appropriate to a task or situation in a socially acceptable manner.

Executive Occupation: Higher-order reasoning and thinking ability.

What can be done to improve social skills?

The following things can be done to help improve social skills of a child:

Play with your child to develop joint attention, communication, shared interests, cooperation, and appropriate play with toys.

Emotions: Help your child understand and show his own emotions and recognize those emotions in other people.

Empathy: Help your child understand and recognize other people's feelings in certain situations.

Social stories: These stories are used to teach children some social skills that may be difficult for them to understand or may be confusing.

The purpose of the story is to increase the child's understanding by describing in detail a certain situation and suggesting an appropriate social response.

Social Groups: These are groups with the express purpose of managing social interactions with others.

What activities can help improve social skills?

The following activities can help improve the social skills of a child:

Visuals: Create a poster of rules to remember when starting a conversation.

Role play: Practice playground/party scenarios where the child doesn't know anyone.

Model and make a list of different things you could say: Join other players (e.g., "Can I play too?").

Help your child introduce himself (e.g., "Hello, my name is ...."). Help him negotiate politely with peers (e.g., "I don't want that. Can I have a blue car?").

Sing songs like "When You're happy and You Know It" to teach your baby about different emotions.

Masks: Make masks together to improve eye contact.

Repetitions: take turns playing games (e.g., board games) to encourage the child to say whose turn it is in the game (e.g., "My turn", "Your turn").

Games: Play board games with your child. Make sure that the child is not always the "winner" so that he learns to "lose" in the game and can do better when it happens to his peers.

Classroom Discussion: Pass the bag around and each child takes turns participating in the discussion.

Think of different ways to contribute to the conversation.

Observe and Comment: Play out different situations and comment on appropriate and inappropriate attempts at communication.

Why should you seek therapy if you notice your child has problems with social skills?

Therapeutic intervention to help a child with social skills difficulties is important to:

Help the child interact appropriately with others during play, conversation, and communication.

Help your child develop friendships at school and in extracurricular activities.

Help your child maintain friendships with peers.

Help the child behave appropriately when he interacts with familiar people (e.g., parents, siblings, teachers, family friends) and strangers.

Help the child develop an awareness of social norms and acquire specific social skills.

Develop appropriate social stories to help the child respond in certain social situations.

Some children need clear instruction on how to interact and communicate with others because these skills do not come naturally to them.

What can social skills difficulties lead to if left untreated?

When children have problems with social skills, they may also have problems with making new friends. To maintain friendships with peers. Communicate effectively with strangers in situations including asking for help in a store, asking for directions when lost, and negotiating with someone with whom they have disagreed.

Children who have problems with social skills find it difficult to read and understand social situations; understand jokes and figurative language and handle failure.

If you want further clarity regarding social skills, then visit, Dr. Habib’s Foster CDC.