Social Skills Groups are designed to provide children with difficulties with social skills opportunities to learn and practice appropriate play, pragmatic language, and peer interaction skills in guided activity sessions. The groups are led by a certified, licensed speech-language pathologist (SLP). The SLP will teach specific pragmatic language skills within a sensory enriched environment.

group2

Groups are designed for pre-school children (ages 4-6) as well as school-aged children (ages 7-10). Each group serves 4-6 children with similar abilites. Group goals are determined by the parents and therapist. The goal of group is for the children to generalize these social skills to their everyday life. Parents are provided activity suggestions to reinforce and practice targeted social skills at home when opportunities naturally present themselves.

Checklist for good candidates for Social Skills Group:

1. Good verbal skills (i.e., moderate to good speech skills, good grasp of language structure and syntax), but difficulty communicating effectively with others, especially peers.
2. Difficulty with pragmatic language, for example:

• Difficulty verbally initiating conversations.
• Difficulty generating relevant response during verbal interactions.
• Inconsistent or poor visual attention (eye contact) during verbal interactions.
• Difficulty with topic maintenance; frequently interrupting conversations.
• Difficulty identifying or “reading” others’ non-verbal cues or poor use of non-verbal cues, such as facial expressions, body language, vocal tone, etc.
• Difficulty negotiating compromises or cooperative play with peers.