by Denise Neville

Created on: July 14, 2009   Last Updated: July 20, 2009

Social skills are an important tool for anyone to have; children with autism have difficulty with this skill. They tend to be cognitively unaware of any social interactions, as they cannot simply learn through play. Children with autism will not initiate play, they will have no or limited eye contact, be unable to understand personal space, all of which hinders their ability to form friendships. For a child with autism they need to be taught these skills.

There are several ways to teach a child with autism social skills; I will discuss these, with the first being social stories. Social stories are short stories that show the social skill, demonstrate the social skill, provide a consequence good or bad. An important note: social stories always need to start off positive, have a negative or a lesson, then end on a positive result. The social story should not be a negative experience, it should leave the child feeling rewarded and confident.

Social stories can be done in a couple of ways; they can be done with pictures, either from the Picture Exchange system, real photographs, or for older children they can be written. I prefer both pictures and written together. Providing both forms of media will help the child learn the written word and pictures can help support the idea. Another important note; keep your social stories short and to the point. You do not want to ramble on. Name the skill, name what the negative behavior is and the consequence, name the appropriate social skill and end on a positive effect. These should be incorporated throughout the child's day, whenever possible. Use any moment as a teachable moment.

Having these social stories compact and portable is an affective way to use them during any situation. To do this you will need key rings, hole punch and a laminated social story. Once the stories are done this way you can attach them to a key chain which the child or yourself can carry. This idea is great for reminders for the child to practice certain skills when they need. If the child is very young then the caregiver will need to carry the social story and intervene when appropriate, and remind the child with the story by role playing or modeling.

Modeling is another fantastic way to help a child with Autism learn social skills. By modeling a particular social skill the child has an opportunity to learn by repetition and interaction. The adult should explain with words and pictures to help reinforce the skill that needs to be mastered,

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>