Artfully Speaking for the Social Genius
This program is designed for the older adolescent or young adult. High school is a time of transition where students may need additional support to either begin to develop social communication skills that are required beyond their radius of school and family.
This program supports individuals who may have been educated in:
- specialized educational placements
- public school with IEPs
- home schooled
- alternative schools
Social Communication Skills and Instruction in social development was not an essential part of their curriculum. This leaves them at a disadvantage because individuals are transitioning and entering a competitive world of post-secondary school and the work force environments.
Programs are designed so that each potential social genius is given direct instruction that can be designed in social groups and / or social individual basis. Social skills are the strategies and tactics that individuals use to negotiate daily social tasks that they encounter. A key component of the social thinking process is called “interactive perspective taking” or Theory of Mind. They learn to ask of the listener; “What does the listener need or expect in the interaction? Theory of Mind requires that person to see the works through other people’s eyes, or to understand that other people think differently from him or herself.
While these skills com naturally to many of us, there are individuals diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Non-Verbal Learning Disabilities (NLD) and Language Learning Disabilities (LLD) and Acquired Brain Injuries, often have difficulty with social thinking.
VERBAL COMMUNICATION
- Maintain or stay on topic
- Humor, Sarcasm, Idioms, Figurative Language;
Using in conversation, reading and written language - Asking and answering topic related questions
- Voice: Loudness and Expression
- Understanding peer pressure
- Stress Management
- Organizational Management
- Identify and correct communication breakdowns
NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION
- Use of eye contact
- Understanding and using facial
- Being a good listener
- Identify and managing emotions
- Gestures
- Perspective taking of others
- Awareness of Self and Perceptions: Appearance, Hygiene, Posture
- Safety of Self and Others
Assessment: New clients participate in an informal pragmatic language and social communication assessment, prior to beginning any treatment program. Parent input is particularly important given that standardized tests are unable to fully measure these challenges.
Social Thinking / Communication Groups: consist of a dyad of two, and a group of three to five children or adolescents who are at a similar state in their social thinking and skill development. Age and gender, as well as language and cognitive ability are also factors when assigning group placement. Ability may or may not mean placement with same-age peers, however, every accommodation for you child’s learning style and age-based skill will be made.
