Social Skills Group

[HIU8]

Does your child attend a social skills group? How much of a benefit do you feel there is to it?

[mytwosons]

My DS attended a play based social skills group from about age 3-6. I did feel it helped, and contribute it mainly to the skill and knowlege of the therapist running the group. I've heard mixed reviews of other programs near me.

[sidmand]

DS attends one. We started a few months ago. There is also one at the Y. It's not cheap but I think it's helping. I know they're talking about things that are important and helpful and I like that it's a different set of kids than school. The one at the Y is much less expensive though but it's new and I don't know much about it. Ours is run by an OT and SLP. I'm not sure that's always the case though.

[egoldber]

Older DD did a group in 4th grade. It lasted the whole year.

I think she benefited tremendously from it, but it was expensive and I would only do it if....

1) if it was run by at least 1 and preferably 2 trained, skilled facilitators (hers was done by an LCSW and a PsyD student)
2) the group was well matched in terms of ages and similarity of issues
3) the group wasn't too large

Her group used this book as the basis for their curriculum:

http://www.amazon.com/Raise-Your-Chi.../dp/0966036689

Hers also had a concurrent parent group and that was very, very helpful for us as well.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Yes during the day at school. Since it is easy and free, we are happy.

[HIU8]

Thanks Beth. We are looking at several---JSSA which I've heard is hard to get into and not all the leaders are good. Another one run by DS's ST group that uses SLP and an actor and a few others that have psychologists running them. We have gotten to the point where DS needs more social skills help.

[Pepper]

DS1started one at the end of January. He loves it. It's run by a SLP, at then place where her goes for OT so we have a copay(insurance covers it under speech therapy benefit). We waited more than a year to get him into a group - they try to match ages and abilities of kids in the group, as other pollsters have said. DS's group has 3 other boys who have done it for a wle, 2 other 5-year-olds and one 7 yo.

His OT mentioned that she's seen him apply things that he's learned in group during his sessions. I haven't seen that much of a difference at home yet, but it's only been a couple on months. Nut since DS likes it, I am all for continuing in the group for a while. I forget the name of the program they're using- they have a book that they generally follow.