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Social Skills

5 Tips to Help Your Child Make Friends


Helping Your Child Learn Social SkillsIf your child is having difficulty making friends at school, it is heart breaking. You want to help him. It could be that he’s experiencing problems developing a range of social skills. Maybe he’s having difficulty looking others in the eye, talking about what the group is talking about, or other behaviors that are needed for him to “stay with the group” successfully. It could be your child’s problem solving skills need help.

Talk to him about what’s going on and try to identify the barriers. Is it that he’s having difficulty relating to his classmates? Is he not able to stay with the group? Is he not noticing or even saying “hello” to the other kids?

Ask your child’s teacher the same questions. I recommend to parents that you treat all of your child’s teachers, therapists, coaches, and anyone else who is in their daily lives like your ‘team’. Stay in regular contact with them so that you can benefit from their observations and suggestions.

These are just the first steps in helping your child to improve his or her social skills.

I’ll discuss more ways to help your child make friends in future articles.

It’s Hard to Find Social Skills Homework

 

I certainly learned about the importance of social skills when our twin sons began mainstream kindergarten. (You can read how we accomplished mainstreaming here.)

This was in 2007, before apps and interactive software programs were widely available. I searched high and low for a social skills learning software program. There were none at the time. That’s what led me to develop The Social Express. (But that’s another story.)

Here Are 5 Tips for Helping Your Child Improve His Social Skills

1. Have calm conversations with your child about what’s keeping him from making friends. Find out exactly where he’s having trouble when trying to interact with other kids. Ask him to describe the other kids in his class and what he thinks about them. Find out what happens during recess or group activities. Ask lots of simple questions. Dig deep with your questions.

2. Become the CSI

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The Social Express Attends Special Needs Education CASE Conference

Social-skills-special-education-CASE-conferenceSan Diego, CA (PRWEB) September 30, 2012

The Social Express™, creators of a new social skills learning software program for special needs children, is attending the Annual CASE Conference from November 1-3 in Scottsdale. The Social Express was voted Most Likely to Succeed at SIIA’s Ed Tech Summit in May.

The company joins top special education leaders at the 23rd annual CASE conference. The Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE) is an international professional educational organization which is affiliated with the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) whose members are dedicated to the enhancement of the worth, dignity, potential, and uniqueness of each individual in society.

“We’ve been humbled by the amazing reception and feedback we’ve received from special needs

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Social Skills Learning Firm Attends EdNET 2012 in Baltimore

Our President, Jon Cornick, and I are all set for our trip to the upcoming EdNET 2012 Conference. EdNET is a premier networking event for the Education that’s so well attended, this is its 24th year!

We’re really looking forward to meeting many of the top industry leaders in Education. We’ve been fortunate to have such an overwhelming and enthusiastic response to our social skills learning program, The Social Express, in our first (almost) year. We’re busy making plans to continue to grow our company and become leaders in social and emotional learning in Education.

If you’re attending EdNET 2012, let us know! It would be great to meet up. Here is our press release:

The Social Express Attends EdNET 2012 in Baltimore, September 30  – October 3

San Diego, CA (PRWEB) September 20, 2012

The Social Express™, creators of a new social skills learning management system, is attending EdNET 2012 in Baltimore, Maryland from September 30 to October 3. The Social Express was voted Most Likely to Succeed at SIIA’s Ed Tech Summit in May. The company joins over 550 executives and industry leaders at the 24th annual EdNET, the education industry’s premier event.

“The Social Express has received an incredibly enthusiastic reception in its first year. By providing exceptional curricula, analytics reporting, and other exciting content, The Social Express will continue it’s goal of becoming a leader in social and emotional learning in Education,” said company President Jon Cornick.

Cornick added, “EdNET is an excellent conference that provides our company with opportunities to

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Director of Clinical Research at Marcus Autism Center Joins Advisory Board

We’re honored to have Dr. Celine Saulnier join our Advisory Board. She has invested her career in researching and helping children and young adults on the autism spectrum.

Dr. Saulnier shares with us a passion for finding new ways to help children diagnosed on the autism spectrum to improve their social skills.  Our press release is below.

San Diego, CA (PRWEB) September 13, 2012

The Social Express™, a new creator of social skills software, today announced that it has appointed to its Advisory Board, Celine Saulnier, Ph.D. Dr. Saulnier currently serves as the Clinical Director for Research at the Marcus Autism Center, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

At the Marcus Autism Center, Dr. Saulnier oversees the development

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Appsmitten Says: Social Skills Software is ‘In a Class of It’s Own’

  We’re so “smitten” about a recent review of our social learning software by appSmitten. The team at appSmitten puts together handpicked, personalized app reviews. And they recently reviewed our social skills learning software. We’re very humbled! If you haven’t checked out their site, here is the link: http://www.appsmitten.com/ Here is the appSmitten review about…
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3 Ways Group Video Games Help Your Child to Improve Social Skills

 

We believe that every child deserves to have a friend. Often making friends is harder for kids with autism, Asperger’s, and ADHD. They need extra help to develop social skills such as being with the group, understanding what’s happening next, communication, and looking at who is talking.

Many times it’s because they don’t pick up cues from other kids in the same ways that neurotypical children do.

My wife and I have always made helping our boys improve their social skills a priority. That’s where the inspiration for creating The Social Express began.

Eileen Campos’ recent blog post at MommyTeaches.com got me thinking even more about the different ways you can approach social skills learning for your child. Video game playing in a group of children is a top one!

Eileen writes about how she’s observed her children improve their math and reading skills while playing video games. Like one explaining to the others why he has more points. (Love that!) You can read Eileen’s post here.

I’ve observed how video games played in a group help a child with autism improve how he or she gets along with others. Here are three ideas you can try with your child.

How Group Video Games Help Autistic Kids with Social Skills

1. Encourage Group Video Game Playing for Best Social Interaction

Arrange for your child to play selected video games with siblings or other children. This leads

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Improving Social Skills of Kids with Autism: An Optimistic Research Study!

Optimistic Study on Social Skills for Kids with AutismI have long believed that children with autism really do have the ability to improve their social skills and make friends. Good news! Now there’s a study that agrees with me.

Researchers at the Koegel Autism Center at UC Santa Barbara found that children with autism can make friends. The research study focused on children diagnosed with ASD (autism spectrum disorders) in junior high and high school.  This is great news because they found that these adolescents are as capable as anyone else of making strong friendships.

Parents know that junior high and high school years are tough for all kids. I certainly still remember tough times from when I was that age! Don’t you?

But as parents of kids with autism, we know it is—or will be—even more difficult for them to make friends.

The Koegel Autism Center study supports another belief I have:

The autistic brain is not as impacted as everyone previously thought it was when it comes to social skills and social interaction.

Researchers found that by focusing on the strengths of these autistic kids, they were able to form friendships. Strong ones!

Here’s how they did it in a nutshell.

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