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).

Pulling it all together

For the last week, I have been blogging about Dr. Ross Greene and his approach to handling challenging kids. His focus has been on lagging skills, and unsolved problems occur when those skills are outstripped by the demands of the environment. Problems are solved when the adults and kids look at the skills that are lagging and come up with solutions together. It has been an eye opener because as I revisit and write about what I've learned, I have come to realize it's not much different than what happens inside these walls.

Bridgeway has been focusing on skills deficits when it comes to behaviour for years. When there is a behaviour issue at our school, students are asked to see our behaviour specialist. They sit together, discuss the situation and work together to come up with solutions. Over time, behaviours start to become less frequent.

But the focus on skills doesn't stop at the behaviour room. Because all of our students have learning disabilities, they all have skill deficits, whether it's in math, reading, social skills or behaviour. Every teacher and staff member focuses on the student and the skills that she/he may be lacking. Reading classes teach the child at the skill level they're at, and work to build those skills. Social skills classes help children learn the skills that they haven't developed because of where they are in their cognitive development. Teachers in curriculum know what skills deficits each child is facing, and adapts their teaching to accomodate.

How do we know where to start? Each of our students comes to us with a psycho-educational assessment, which is a professional measure of their skill deficits (and strengths) done by a psychologist. We do some additional testing so we can develop just the right balance of support of skills and use of strengths in a student's individual program. We keep working with a skills focus until kids start to learn - and succeed! It's a pretty amazing thing.

Of course, skills development can benefit any child, not just the ones inside Bridgeway.  That's why we started Turning Tides Community Outreach.  Through this program, we can offer social skills supports to children and youth in the community through after school or summer camp programs.  We can also offer academic and organizational skills suppots to children and adults through our tutoring programs.  And we can help parents and teachers support those new skills by providing them with training.  For more information on how we might be able to help you or your family, contact the Turning Tides office at 902-404-TIDE (8433).  

Rhonda

This is neat! Technology for social skills

Every once in a while we'll share information about a new piece of technology that is being made available to support kids with specific learning needs.  We came across this article recently and thought it was worth sharing.  (NOTE: We haven't tried this app and are not endorsing it, but we love that there are so many smart people in the world developing new ways to learn!)

Sosh focuses on what its creators call "the five R's."

By Mark Bowers

From : http://www.michiganradio.org/post/smart-phone-app-helps-kids-autism

Two Michigan psychologists have created a smart phone app to help kids with autism develop better social skills. Kelly Bowers and her husband Mark are both psychologists who work with kids. They watched their patients learn social skills in workshop settings, but noticed the kids had a harder time applying those skills to real-life situations.

So the Bowers created a phone app. It helps kids monitor the volume of their speech and it has an option that translates common expressions into literal terms. Kelly Bowers says the app can help kids while they’re interacting with friends, family, and at places like school.

“I think kids who want to make connections, who are unable to do so, should be given tools that can help them.”

The app is called “Sosh” and is available for Mac-devices. It’s intended for children aged 9 and above who have Asperger’s Syndrome and other forms of high-functioning autism.

The app costs $40, but a trial version is available for seven days, free of charge.

Where's the Support for Teaching Social Skills?

By Angela Rudderham, Director of Turning Tides Community Outreach

Our children’s home life, school life and future success are all dramatically affected by their social skills - or lack thereof.  Social skills include personal awareness and the awareness of others, the ability to read non-verbal communication and other’s intentions, perspective taking, the ability to communicate effectively, problem solving and emotional control, and the ability to initiate, maintain and repair relationships.  

Our social development can be impacted by a number of influences such as brain injuries, lack of appropriate modeling, learning disabilities and ADHD.  The good news is that social skills can be directly taught and social learning can occur.

You may find that despite your best efforts at teaching your child these skills, they may still need extra support.  The question is, “Who can help?”

Your child’s school may have social skill training awareness and resources for teaching these skills. Make an appointment with the school and ask how they can assist in fostering social competence in your child. If they lack resources and/or training, you may want to advocate that they look at options for increasing their development in these areas.

Check out websites such as http://www.ldonline.org.  By doing a web search you’ll find articles, lesson plans, activities, board games and videos that will assist you in providing social skills training to your child in a fun and positive way.

Seek workshops offered in your area.  Signing up for newsletters or email notices offered by organizations that support persons with learning disabilities or autism should keep you in the loop when these workshops are being offered.  These are excellent opportunities for learning as well as meeting people who share similar experiences or who may become a valuable resource in your quest for information.

Seek professionals such as psychologists, therapists, or speech and language pathologists in your area that offer social skill building.

Seek social skill groups your child can be part of.  Although rare, these groups do exist.  Social skills groups should focus on teaching social skills at the same time as offering opportunities to practise the skill being taught.  The most effective groups will have small numbers, no more than six students at a time.  They will focus on only one skill at a time.  They will have a way to assess and attempt to measure the acquisition of skills.  They will provide the parent with enough information so that they can help the child transfer the skill to other settings.

Check out books and DVD’s such as “Raise Your Child's Social IQ: Stepping Stones to People Skills for Kids “, by Cathi Cohen, LCSW, “It's So Much Work to be Your Friend, Helping the Child with Learning Disabilities Find Social Success” or “Last One Picked ... First One Picked On, Learning Disabilities and Social Skills,” both by Richard Lavoie and both are available in DVD format as well. 

Social skills are skills your child will rely on every single day for the rest of their lives: in school, with peers, with family and eventually at work.  We need to ensure we do our best to equip them with the ability to know and use these skills effectively.  

Interested in finding a social skills group or need more advice? Contact Angela at 902-404-TIDE (8433).

Success Traits and Learning Disabilities

Emotional intelligence and social skills may be a better predictor of future success that academics

By Angela E. Rudderham, Director of Turning Tides Community Outreach

Most children with learning disabilities will receive some support for their academic areas of need; however, when they lack social skills, they are often seen as having a disrespectful attitude or choose to behave in a certain way.  Sadly this is not the case.  Many children with a learning disability or ADHD struggle to understand social rules, non-verbal cues, figurative language, emotional control, problem solving, self-awareness and awareness of others.  A typically developing child may learn these skills by watching others who model the correct behaviour.  For a child with a learning disability, more direct teaching of these skills may be required.  If we ignore the need for teaching social skills and only focus on academics, we are not teaching our children everything they need to be truly successful.

Current research confirms that we need social skills in order to be successful in our relationships, in higher education, and in our careers.  Having straight As won’t get you very far in life if you can’t handle stress or stay in control of your emotions.  If you don’t have enough self-awareness or awareness of others, you won’t do well in a job interview.  If you work with others, you need to problem solve and understand social rules.  Even if you could work with no other people around, what pleasure would life bring if you had no one to share it with or couldn’t cope with everyday stress?

Robin Stern, Ph.D., from the NYU Child Study Center says, “A growing number of educators recognize that students who receive an exclusively academic education may be ill-equipped for future challenges, both as individuals and members of society – it's just not enough to feed only the mind.  The field of social and emotional learning has emerged from these new understandings of the nature of biology, emotions and intelligence and their relation to success and happiness. Through social and emotional learning children's emotional intelligence is bolstered, giving them an enormous edge in their personal and professional futures.”

Reesearch conducted by the Frostig Center in Pasadena, California and coordinated with studies by Dr. Marshall H. Raskind and Dr. Roberta J. Goldberg over the last twenty years have looked at personal attributes and behavior, as well as demographic data to determine the best predictors of success at years 10 and 20.  The results found what the researchers call "success attributes" of self-awareness: pro-activity (decision-making, empowerment), perseverance (faces difficulties), goal setting, effective support systems, and emotional stability.  These attributes were found to be more accurate predictors of success than IQ and academic achievement.

Where does this leave the child with social deficits? We know they will find childhood a struggle, and we have to address these deficits before it impedes their future success as well.  These deficits will not simply get better or improve on their own, so it’s time to get proactive.  We need to start teaching the success attributes at home and at school.  As a parent, you can look for social skill groups in your area, or seek professional guidance on how to teach these skills.  Books at your local bookstore can also provide excellent resources and direction.  An online search will reveal numerous websites on the topic as well.  The information is out there for those who want to take an active role in helping to adequately prepare our children for future success.

Need more advice on supporting a child with social deficits?  Contact Angela at 404-TIDE (8433).