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SOCIAL SKILLS GROUPS HOUSED IN MID-WESTCHESTER COUNTY FOR THE REGIONS OF PUTNAM, WESTCHESTER, ROCKLAND COUNTIES AND CONNECTICUT
Populations I have worked with for 20 years ranged from pre-school through 12th grade. The most recent population is Kindergarten-5th grade normal population, emotionally disturbed and learning disabled students. Some of the young students I work with have been on the spectrum with a range from autism to aspergers. Most of the students have emotional issues ranging from rage to depression. I have worked with high school gifted, middle school students, learning disabled, and the emotionally disturbed.
Most of my recent work has been teaching social skills to pre-school through 5th grade as an Educational Diagnostician/School Psychologist.
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Social skills are those communication, problem-solving, decision making, self-management, and peer relations abilities that allow one to initiate and maintain positive social relationships with others. Deficits or excesses in social behavior interfere with learning, teaching, and the classroom's orchestration and climate. Social competence is linked to peer acceptance, adult acceptance, inclusion success and post school success.
Cognitive behavioral techniques will be utilized in group counseling sessions. Work with a student includes the mastering of daily life stresses more effectively, expanding the child's understanding of his/her feelings and their impact on behavior, improving one's ability to form and maintain relationships with a wider range of people and to enhance self-image and social standing. The content of sessions will center on themes of personal power and control, endurance of frustration, exploration of motivational and social issues, and techniques to help control anger. High priorities in sessions are realistic goal setting.
"Social skills training" is a general term for instruction conducted in (behavioral) areas that promotes more productive/positive interaction with others. I teach social skills to students who are (at present) socially unskilled in order to promote acceptance by teachers and peers. A social skills training program might include (among other things) role playing using games.
At the beginning of group sessions most students are able to share and take turns during group counseling activities with much redirection. With encouragement and at times verbal redirection the student is able to follow the rules in group sessions and is also able to perform tasks in exchange for playtime or other reinforcers.
The targeted behaviors are attentional issues, good listening skills, organizational skills, memory, motor activity (internal and external) which the kids call body control, frustration tolerance (counting either forward or backward with deep breathing), mood modulation, emotional vocabulary building, anger control (the kids know about their panic button), cognitive tempo, relaxation techniques (find their quiet spot in their mind and use deep breathing while listening to relaxation music), along with the appropriate interactions with peers (taking turns, sharing, being kind to one another, team work, good sportsmanship, etc.). Additionally, we will be working on communication skills; talking to and listening to others with validation and supporting responses. Discussions and activities are focused around the need to increase the acceptance of authority, better interaction with peers, acceptance of limits imposed by adults, and responsibility for one’s behavior. I will reinforce the slightest appropriate or inappropriate behaviors so the child will become aware of his/her interactive mannerisms in a social setting.
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