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 [...]

Helping kids with ASD to give compliments: Picture/word downloads for social skills teaching

Giving compliments is an important skill for children on the autism spectrum. Below, you can download and print out seven of these panels. Kids practice by matching up compliment words with pictures.

Kids match up the compliment words with the pictures to create compliments. You can put up these panels in your classroom, speech [...]

Showing Concern: Empathy social skills lessons, downloads for children on the autism spectrum

This is the first of seven panels you can easily click on and print out. Use them as talking points when you are teaching, or display them on a wall. Children on the autism spectrum often find "showing concern" a very difficult skill to learn.

This is the first of seven panels you can easily click on and print out. Use them as talking points when you are teaching, or display them on a wall. Children on the autism spectrum often find “showing concern” a very difficult skill to learn.

This is the first in the series of posts on [...]

Visual strategies for autism social skills training, Part 2: Using magnets

I will show how to use two magnets in social skills training to help children with autism to better understand what kinds of behaviors "attract" and "repel" others

I will show how to use two magnets in social skills training to help children with autism to better understand what kinds of behaviors "attract" and "repel" others

This is Part 2 of a multi-part series on how to use hands-on visuals when teaching and counseling children with Asperger’s and other autism spectrum disorders.

To review [...]

Visual strategies for autism social skills training, Part 1, Introduction

Temple Grandin, who has autism, has raised our awareness of how many with autism benefit from visual learning strategies

This is the first of several postings on the topic of using visual-based social skills training methods for children on the autism spectrum to help raise awareness of social cause and effect.

It has been observed that many individuals on the autism spectrum tend to have a style of learning that is predominately visual.  Temple Grandin, in [...]

Game-like social skills methods for kids with autism, Part 2: Make your own social skills game

Kids with ASD often really like to make and use social skills games, like this one

Kids with ASD often really like to make and use social skills games, like this one

Children with Asperger’s and other autism spectrum disorders can get tired and discouraged during our social skills training and social skills teaching activities.  Here is fun and effective way to help your students/clients on the autism spectrum to focus and [...]

Showing children with autism how to show interest using validating word prompts

click on it, wait to open in other window, print out, laminate

Children with autism often need help using words like these. Below, you can download and print out lots of validation word cards like the three shown here. They are great to use in social skills training.

[SCROLL DOWN AND SEE THE VALIDATING WORD PROMPT DOWNLOADS. Thank you! Now, please read below on how to make [...]