Summer - A great chance to enhance social skills

By Angela Rudderham, Director of Turning Tides Community Outreach

Social skills are learned behaviours. Having a learning disability or ADHD can affect the acquisition of these skills.  These skills may have to be broken down to their finest point and taught. These skills must also be practised and evaluated. Many parents fear that with summer approaching, and students going off in different directions, their child may not have many opportunities to practise their social skills. No need to worry, there are plenty of opportunities to get involved, learn and practise social skills over the summer months. For example, parents can help their child organize a get together.

If your child struggles socially the following tips should help things run smoothly.


• Always provide plenty of structure.
• Help your child plan an activity that their guests will enjoy.
• Talk to your child about how the get together will go, this will help lessen anxiety.
• Make sure they have one or two back up plans.
• Talk to them after their friends have left and provide kind and honest feedback with explicit details regarding their actions or conversations. 
Keep in mind those activities outside of the house where another adult is in charge, such as a cooking lesson or a rock climbing lesson, often supplies the right amount of structure and can take the pressure off the host. The activity should allow your child’s best attributes to shine. If they have a difficult time following direction then a cooking lesson may not be their thing. If they have difficulty handling disappointment then you’ll want to steer clear of anything too competitive until those coping skills are in place.

You may want to check out day camps that provide the opportunity to explore an interest and practise social skills. If you are worried that your child’s social needs may contribute to a negative experience there are a few questions that will aide you in choosing the right fit.


• What are your child’s interests?
• How does his/her learning needs contribute to his/her social needs? For example, is he/she impulsive or lack emotional control? Perhaps there is difficulty reading non-verbal cues.
• What do you want your child to gain from his/her experience?
• What does your child want to gain from their experience?
• Does he/she need structure?
• Does he/she become overwhelmed in a face paced environment or do they become bored if things move too slowly?

After considering your child there are a few questions you should seek answers to when looking for the right day camp experience.


• What is the ratio of counsellors to campers?
• How are the counsellors trained? What experience do they have with children who have similar social or learning needs?
• Can they send you a schedule of activities? How much unstructured time is on the schedule?
• How will they encourage harmony within the group?
You may consider a day program that will aide in the development of social skills while creating a fun experience. Turning Tides Community Outreach program delivers a social skills summer day camp for school aged children. The day camp directly teaches social skills and offers opportunities for practise through fun activities and feedback. If you would like more information regarding our social skills summer day camp please call (902) 404-TIDE (8433).