The Social Skills Counseling and Groups program addresses friendship and social skill development. This program is for children ages 5-14.
The groups are designed to help children and adolescents with social issues related to diagnoses such as ADHD, Learning Disabilities, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, and Asperger’s Syndrome, or for children experiencing emotional stressors that effect their social functioning.
Individual and Group Social Skills Counseling provides a safe place for children to express the impact of their experiences through creative and engaging exercises, all aimed at building skills of communication, behavioral control, and cooperation.
In order for children and adolescents to actually consider changing behaviors, they need both the awareness of appropriate social behaviors and opportunities to practice new behavioral alternatives. Only when both elements are present will they learn to use their new skills in social situations.
Areas of focus can include:
- Self-awareness of our own thoughts, feelings and behaviors
- Developing empathy, which is an outgrowth of self-awareness. The more one can understand their own emotions, the more skilled they are at understanding and responding to the emotions of others.
- Managing feelings and stress by developing awareness and then learning constructive ways of expressing and controlling these emotions.
- Increasing appropriate decision making skills by learning a step-by-step process for decision making and applying the process to real issues.
- Building better communication skills by learning and practicing effective communication and learning how to actively listen to others.
- Understanding and practicing a variety of cooperative play and conflict resolution strategies to increase the likelihood of positive social interactions.
- Individual and group sessions are tailored to each child or groups primary needs. Goals and lessons are developed based on a social skills intake form and communication with the parent and/or school professionals.
- Attention Deficit Disorders
- Learning Disabilities
- School Anxiety or Shyness
- Parenting Strategies