If you have any questions about behavioral therapy or treatment funding issues, please keep reading! We have an online meeting tentatively scheduled for Sunday, March 17, 2013 from 7pm-8pm CST (8pm-9pm EST) where we will answer two or three of the questions that have been submitted. Please take a moment to look at a question that has been submitted and the answer given by Steven Kossor is offered as a FREE Case Management Consultation.
I'd like to know what some of the best resources and techniques he's found to teach friendship building, social skills building, and dating skills to individuals on the spectrum. And how does one know when to accept that those resources have limits, depending on the degree of "hardwiring" the individual may have that mitigates against picking up those skills.
Steven KossorFebruary 27, 2013 at 8:57 PM
The best way to help a child with an autism spectrum disorder to develop social skills is through structured peer play activities. The peers should be close in age to the child, and relatively “neurotypical” so that they can provide direct encouragement toward the development of more age-appropriate communication skills by modeling them. Stanley Greenspan devoted a substantial body of his professional career toward helping parents to improve the interpersonal relationship skills of their children and is a terrific resource for professionals who want to integrate “peer play” (one of Greenspan’s primary intervention modalities) into treatment plans for children. As children get older, their interests change and it becomes necessary to provide greater assistance/structure during peer interactions if the child hasn’t developed a basic understanding of “personal space” issues (older children respond more negatively and aggressively to invasions of personal space, so a child must learn the basic limits of personal space relatively early in life). Every child is born with an internal set of tolerances for sensory experience, including human closeness. When a child is overwhelmed by sensory experiences, their tolerance for other people usually decreases, because other people are more often suppliers of sensory experience rather than shields against it. It is important to understand the child’s “sensory tolerances” (hardwired preferences for sensory experience) and not overwhelm those tolerances in the course of providing socialization training or other learning experiences.
I met Steven Kossor online through a featured guest post that I wrote last April for a parenting site. He is the Founder and Executive Director of The Institute of Behavior Change in Pennsylvania. Steven has over thirty years experience in research and working with individuals on the autism spectrum. We have become friends in the autism community over the last several months. Autism Advocacy and the Education of children on the autism spectrum is important to both of us, as well as protecting their rights to funding of therapies that will help them.
Steven Kossor and I have tentatively scheduled an online WebEx "Case Management Consultation" meeting where he will answer two or three predetermined questions concerning educational, behavioral therapy and treatment funding issues related to the care of individuals with autism spectrum disorders. I am in the process of collecting questions from my wonderful readers, will help choose two or three of those questions to be answered and then serve as moderator during the online "Case Management Consultation".
If YOU have a question that you would like to submit for an answer during the online "Case Management Consultation", please leave it in a comment below this post. As the date of the online meeting nears, I will post the instructions on how everyone can join us. I am looking forward to hearing everyone's questions and hope that you will share this opportunity with others in the autism community!
As a follow up: I am a clinician with one to one sessions. My time and insurance constraints don't allow for group sessions. What suggestions and resources do you have for me to, as an individual theerapist, teach friendship building, social skills building, and dating skills to adults on the spectrum. And how do I know when to accept that those resources have limits, depending on the degree of "hardwiring" the individual may have that mitigates against picking up those skills.
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