Social Skills Groups
Our social skills groups are designed to encourage joyful play, interaction, and life-long friendships. Children on the spectrum often want friends, but they don't always know how to start or maintain interactions, communication, play activities, and friendships.
Our groups are a safe place for neurodivergent kids to be themselves, learn to navigate the complexities of social interactions, learn to advocate for themselves, and to form friendships with one another.
Activities are structured carefully to provide enough freedom for children to explore and interact in the way that works best for them while also providing structure, encouragement, and assistance to help each child reach their goals.
What do we do?
Art Activity!
Each class includes a fun art activity so that children can interact with one another while engaging their creativity!
Games!
Each session includes active social games such as hide and seek, red rover, hot potato, and more!
Play!
Each session will allow free play time where children can take a break if needed, or they can engage in reciprocal play with friends.
Mondays
7:00pm-8:00pm
9 - 11 year olds
Wednesdays
6:30pm-7:30pm
6 - 9 year olds
About our groups
Many children with ASD have difficulty making and maintaining friends. These groups are meant to create a fun and safe place for your child to play, make friends, and gain social confidence.
Groups are led by a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and will focus on the development of peer relations, age-typical play, social skills, and relationship development.
Each child will be given an individual in-take assessment whereby their target social skills will be determined for the session. Data will be taken during each session to monitor and measure your child’s progress with his/her targeted skills. As target skills are mastered, new target skills will be added so that each child is continually growing in their ability to play, learn, and interact with peers.
Target skills include (but are not limited to) greeting peers, introducing one's self, asking peers to play, accepting peer requests to play, engaging in age-appropriate play with peers for gradually extended periods of time, answering individual questions, answering group questions, and maintaining a conversation. Target skills will differ for each individual child in the group and will be based upon that child's individual in-take assessment.
All target skills will be addressed in a fun, safe, and structured setting. The group will take part in group circle time, social activities, games such as Hide and Seek, Red Rover, board games, art, music, movement, guided peer play, and group projects.
Our groups teach:
• Age-Appropriate Play Skills
• Greater Social Understanding & Awareness
• Group Interaction
• Social Initiation and Responsiveness
• Group games that your child might encounter with peers at school or on the playground.
Our group goals are:
• Fun!
• Lasting Friendships!
• Self-Confidence!
• Building a wide variety of new interests!
Schedule:
Groups meet for one hour a week for 8 week sessions.
If you and your child would like to re-enroll for the next session, a new in-take assessment will NOT be required.
Groups are broken down into two age groups: Ages 6-9 and ages 9-11.
Groups will take place in Mechanicville, NY