Reaching more children more effectively in social skills teaching

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We mental health professionals, guidance counselors and SLP’s tend to do a lot of our work in private.  This privacy is often necessary.  But not always.  Sometimes, we allow the solitary conventions of our work to place limits on the number of children we serve and the number of adults we collaborate with on [...]

Visual strategies for autism social skills Part V: People Points

For children on the autism spectrum, cause and effect can be hard to understand without a visual metaphor. It is very useful to tell them that what we say and do earns "Positive Points" or "Negative Points" in the minds of others.

For children on the autism spectrum, cause and effect can be hard to understand without a visual metaphor. It is very useful to tell them that what we say and do earns “Positive Points” or “Negative Points” in the minds of others.

This blog entry describes a social skills training method I developed for kids [...]

Visual strategies for autism social skills training, Part III: Using a toy balance

A toy balance is an amazing social skills lesson strategy to teach children with Asperger's and other autism spectrum disorders about "balance" in relationships

A toy balance is an amazing social skills lesson strategy to teach children with Asperger’s and other autism spectrum disorders about “balance” in relationships

{Dear reader: If you are in a hurry to get to the point, just go to my basic but succinct YouTube video:http://bit.ly/AxtMPU}

This is the third in a multi-part series on using [...]

The Green Zone: Common Ground Conversation Training method for kids on the autism spectrum

Children with Asperger's and other autism spectrum disorders have a great deal of difficulty finding "common ground" in conversation. The images, worksheets and methods provided in this blog provide an introduction to an engaging, visual-based set of methods called The Green Zone.

Children with Asperger’s and other autism spectrum disorders have a great deal of difficulty finding “common ground” in conversation. The images, worksheets and methods provided in this blog provide an introduction to an engaging, visual-based set of methods called The Green Zone.     Please see all the downloadable visuals and worksheets at the bottom of [...]

Minting New Thoughts: Engaging CBT Activity for kids with ASD and others

Here is a great activity for individuals or groups of kids to introduce or expand on how to cope with upset feelings.  It uses the metaphor of paper money that is first minted, and then shredded if it is defective or worn out. To do the Mint New Thoughts activity you need to print out [...]