Session Category: Social Skills
National Conference 2013: Session Information
Session Category: Social Skills
The following list of sessions all fall under the Social Skills category
*The Importance Of Teaching Resilience
Brief Description: This presentation discusses the importance of building the positive character trait of Resilience, how this trait is developed, and what factors might foster or impede its development. The discussion will be followed by specific examples of programs and processes aimed at teaching how to build Resilience to persons with autism and other developmental disabilities.
Speaker(s): June Groden
*Collaboration Conundrum: Mastering Group Projects At School and Beyond
Brief Description: Schools and workplaces embrace collaboration, assuming that groups engaged in brainstorming, crowdsourcing, and agile development produce better ideas than individuals. Although new scholarship raises questions about the benefits of collaboration (Cain 2012), our cultural bias towards extroversion and social interaction means navigating collaborative projects is an important life skill for autistic students and adults. Schools claim to appreciate different learning styles, but they overlook different social styles. This presentation explores how autistic people can succeed in collaborative settings.
Speaker(s): Christopher S. Wyatt
*Turn It On: Using Movies, Movie Shorts, and Youtube As Social Cognition Material
Brief Description: Electronic media (popular movies, movie clips, and YouTube videos) provides wonderful material for work in social cognition. These contextually rich, third person examples of social learning concepts can help students develop a solid foundation of understanding, making it easier for them to examine their own behavior. After a system for grouping students into learning classifications is presented, we will examine ways to use specific movies and YouTube videos therapeutically, with many video examples of children from preschool through high school.
Speaker(s): Anna Vagin
*Destination Friendship: A Model To Developing Friendships In Individuals With ASD
Brief Description: This session will highlight a newly published resource: Destination Friendship- Developing Social Skills for Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders or Other Social Challenges. It will describe a proactive approach to instruction that includes subtle coaching, social scripting and immediate opportunities to practice skills to foster friendships. The Friendship Skills Checklist and the link between the Destination Friendship strategies and the National Standards Report will be discussed. Practical and fun activities will be described in which the strategies can be applied.
Speaker(s): Alice Womer, Mary Benton, Carol Hollis, Kelly Mahler
*Social Skllls & Emotional Regulation Training: Experiences Running Secret Agent Society Program
Brief Description: A new initiative at the Geneva Centre for Autism is the Secret Agent Society Social Skills Training Program. This espionage-themed social skills program developed in Australia by Dr. Renae Beaumont is designed to improve the emotion regulation and social skills of children with “High-Functioning” Autism or Asperger Syndrome, ages 8 to 12. As one of the first organizations in Ontario to offer this program, GCA will present the experiences and impact of the first run of the SAS in 2013.
Speaker(s): Melissa Legree, Lindy Zaretsky, Debbie Irish
*Making Talking Visible: Six Conversation Kits For Speech, Mental Health and Teaching
Brief Description: Young people with high functioning autism commonly experience problems with beginning and ending conversations and sticking to topics of shared interest. This presentation explains how to download, print, set up and use six practical and engaging visual-based conversation training resources designed by the presenter. The free featured resources are designed for use with children age 6 to 18.
Speaker(s): Joel Shaul
*Utilizing Applied Behavior Analysis To Facilitate Social Skill Development In Adolescents Within Group Settings
Brief Description: This program will identify common social needs for individuals diagnosed with ASD as well as interventions that address specific social skills. We will describe and review how the seven principles of Applied Behavior Analysis can be used to develop social skills and benefit those diagnosed with ASD between the ages of 14 to 21 years, within a group setting.
Speaker(s): Katie Harrill, Gina L. Mackin
*Fantasy Enthrallment In Children With High Functioning Autism: Manifestations and Practice Considerations
Brief Description: The restriction of interests seen in individuals with high functioning autism often takes the form of enthrallment with fantasy. This presentation assesses both dysfunctional and functional manifestations of intense imagination in children with ASD, examining social skills training methods that take the appeal of fantasy into account. Several practical psycho-educational methods employing fantasy themes are explained.
Speaker(s): Joel Shaul
* A Family Driven Service Model: Small Investment, Big Results
Brief Description: This presentation provides an overview of the collaborative development, implementation, challenges, evaluation and growth of a program called “CHANCES.” CHANCES, the CHildhood Autism Network of Comprehensive Education and Support, is a low cost, parent-directed model of service for families who have children on the Autism Spectrum. The specific services provided; Parent Support Groups, respite, skills practice (a unique opportunity to help staff and families learn together,) educational opportunities and crisis response will be discussed.
Speaker(s): Joann Holland
*Teaching Hygiene: A FUN Approach With a Focus On Social Understanding
Brief Description: For many reasons, the area of hygiene can be very difficult for individuals with ASD. Hygiene, or lack thereof, can have significant impact on quality of life. This session will provide a practical yet, FUN approach to use when addressing these important hygiene needs. While improving Social Understanding will be the emphasis, other common skill areas that can impact hygiene performance will be discussed. Additionally, easy-to-use activities and strategies that target the underlying causes of hygiene difficulties will be provided.
Speaker(s): Kelly Mahler
