Early Intervention - Social Skills Program
Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder have deficits in the area of social and play skills and this is detrimental as it affects overall developmental growth and opportunities for learning new skills. Teaching children with autism the basic skill to participate in play is crucial as play provides a vehicle for these children to explore, learn and practice social interactions in their environment.
This program is a supported play- based social skilling model that utilizes evidenced-based research for supporting the social and emotional development of children with autism. It provides opportunities for child and adult social exchanges to take place. The teaching of social and play skills through this program will focus on the child’s current level of development including their strengths, needs, interests, learning styles, and preferences. Routine daily life skills activities (hand washing, eating, and toileting) will also be taught. Adults will provide varying levels of structured teaching instruction using environmental arrangements, use of equipment / toys, facilitating and scaffolding play opportunities, helping children successfully enter established games by role modeling, and utilizing effective functional communication through use of verbal, gestures and pictorial tools. The aim is for children to learn appropriate social skills, generate alternative behaviors for peer conflict through positive behavior support and practice positive interactions with others in a meaningful way. A maximum of 6 children can participate in the program and the program operates on a staff to child ratio of 2 to 1.
Staff: 1 Early Childhood Teacher (Postgraduate in Special Education), 1 Occupational Therapist and 1 Child Care Worker (specializing in providing care to children with autism).
Duration: 2 hours session, 6 weeks duration
