Social Skills Training

What is Social Skills Training?


Social Skills Training focuses on teaching how the social world works and how to navigate in order to regulate in the social world. Our focus is to help kids achieve their social goals and develop supports to tap into their unique strengths for learning while acknowledging any potential hurdles.

 

Social intelligence is but one of several types of intelligence. While it is common for neurodivergent kids to gain knowledge in subjects like math, reading, and science, it can be harder to find environments where young people can hone their social-emotional competencies and work on improving their own intrapersonal communication skills.

 

At Hogg Therapy, we believe that neurodiversity is important. Neurodiversity refers to the idea that we should respect and recognize the differences in how our individual brains operate, and that every brain has its own unique differences.

  • What is Social Thinking Methodology?

    The Social Thinking Methodology, as outlined by Michelle Garcia Winner, forwards our clients’ development of social competencies and is built on a foundation of research, real-world experiences, and learning and gaining inspiration from our clients.


     


    The Social Thinking Methodology is designed to help ages from kids and teens to adults with solid language and learning abilities. Our clients may be individuals with social-emotional learning challenges who may have autism spectrum levels 1 and 2, ADHD, social communication disorders, social anxiety, or no diagnosis.

  • What Is Social Thinking?

    Social thinking allows us to interpret the intent by which others interact with the world, and (if necessary) instructs us on how to respond. An individual’s social thinking ability impacts their relationships with others and can determine their level of success in school and at work. It impacts social skills, self-awareness, self-regulation, critical thinking, comprehension, expression, planning, organizational skills, etc.



    Just as we believe that neurodiversity is important, we also believe that understanding the social world is important. The skills kids will learn in social skills training sessions will help them make and achieve their social goals.

  • Social Thinking Methodology’s Three-part Process & the Social Emotional Chain Reaction

    1.  The first step to improving social thinking is to observe the social world that surrounds us.
    2.  We use social thinking to adapt our social behaviors (social skills) effectively as a means to meet our social goals. To do this, we must learn strong self-awareness, self-monitoring, and self-control. We must learn how to adapt our physical posture depending on the context, how we use our eyes to better understand others and communicate, and tools for conversational language to relate to others. 
    3.  Our social thinking and social skills directly impact how others feel about us. The purpose of social thinking is to produce social behavior that gives others the emotional experience you intend to give and helps us better predict and relate to the emotions of others.


    One idea STM teaches is the Social Emotional Chain Reaction.

    1.  Every individual social environment has implied or stated social norms.
    2.  What an individual person does or says in the presence of others can impact how they are perceived by others.
    3.  This may impact how they are treated, which impacts how an individual is likely to feel about people in that situation, as well as themselves.

  • Setting Goals

    Your child can learn a variety of skills in our social skills training groups, including starting conversations, making appropriate eye contact, interacting in social and community settings, and understanding body language, gestures, and facial expressions. 


    Our therapists discuss the Social Emotional Chain Reaction and help your child understand the strategies they may use to meet their social goals, including increased positive interactions with peers or improved academic performance, etc.



  • Other Ways to Improve Social Skills

    In addition to our social skills groups, there are things you can do to help your child succeed socially. Play is one of the best ways to connect with children, and it’s a great opportunity for learning to take turns, develop attention, and share interests. You can also help your child understand emotions and empathy. Using social stories is an excellent way to do this. Social stories utilize pictures and simple explanations to help your child understand various situations.

     


    We also encourage engaging in certain activities, such as visual aids. These aids are similar to social stories but tend to use lists of rules or actions rather than pictures with individual explanations. Practicing different scenarios using role-play is also helpful. Examples include how to join others in play and introduce themselves to others.

     


    For more resources: 

    https://www.socialthinking.com/social-thinking-methodology