Social Skills Programmes : An Integrated Approach from Early Years to Adolescence

From the authors of "Autism: A Social Skills Approach for Children Adolescents", this publication contains detailed photocopiable session plans for different age groups ranging from early years to adolescence.

The emphasis is on integrated working practices that cross professional boundaries particularly for teachers and speech language therapists.

Although it would make sense to apply the programme primarily to able and verbal children with an autistic spectrum disorder, the authors believe that a social-skills approach is relevant to the needs of a much wider group of children than those with a formal diagnosis.

At the early-years level the programme introduces children to good attention behaviour, which includes looking, listening and turn-taking.

By adolescence, the participants are helped to deal effectively with real-life situations, as well as gaining some insight into the thoughts, perspectives and intentions of others.

The programmes can be integrated to include aspects of the national curriculum, and their usefulness lies in their flexibility. The session plans can be used as presented, or adjusted to meet the needs of particular groups in both clinical and educational settings.

It reflects the current focus for inclusion and the integration of children with special needs into mainstream educational settings.