How to Teach a Child with Autism Social Skills

My purpose in writing this article is to share an amazing tool I have learned to teach a child with Autism social skills. This can be a seemingly endless problem facing many parents of autistic children. From personal experience I know how much of a struggle this can be, and it is my hope that by reading this, you can take an elusive step forward in solving this problem. Autism can be a very real struggle, but improvement is possible.

Materials Needed: Picture cards, Books and magazines, and "social stories."

Step One - Teaching your child to recognize feelings in others: Many children with Autism have a lot of trouble labeling and understanding the emotions in others. This is a huge wall in a social situation. An amazing method to help your child label another's emotion is by using picture cards. Picture cards are cards, each with a face showing a different emotion. Ask your child to label the emotions on the cards, explaining to them what each facial expression is and what it means when your child is stuck. Understand that this can take a lot of time and effort, and is under no circumstances easy.

Step Two - Practicing Reciprocal Interactions: Children with Autism often have very one-sided conversations, talking about only what interests them. They rarely acknowledge the person they are speaking with. Learning this skill does not come naturally as it might with another child, but may require a lot of practice. To teach your child this skill, teach your child how to ask questions during a conversation, and how to wait appropriately for a response. Allow your child to ask you a question, answer it, and then ask for another question.

Step Three - Use Social Stories: Social stories are simple stories written from a child's point of view. Each story describes a situation, and how a child handles that situation. The stories model what your child is expected to do during each social situation. Example stories can be found at Polyxo

Step Four - Using Role-Play: Role-play social situations with your child. Demonstrate what to do in a social situation and then allow your child to do the same. List different social situations on flash cards, and then take turns picking from a pile. Tell your child when he/she is doing a good job, and also explain when there is something better he/she can do.

If you found this article helpful, you may also benefit from:

How to Teach a Child with Aspergers or Autism to Recognize Their Emotions

Or

How to Teach Someone with Aspergers or Autism to Recognize Their Emotions

Sources:

http://www.answerbag.com/articles/How-to-Teach-Social-Skills-to-Children-With-Autism/013c6e19-2cfa-a5f1-5ea9-699c850345b0

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