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| Teaching Social Skills That Change Lives: Developing Meaningful Relationships for People Diagnosed With Autism |
| Friday, May 25, 2012 |
| 8:00 AM–3:00 PM |
| 612 (Convention Center) |
| Area: AUT; Domain: Service Delivery |
| CE Instructor: Justin B. Leaf, Ph.D. |
| MITCHELL T. TAUBMAN (Autism Partnership), RONALD B. LEAF (Autism Partnership), JOHN JAMES MCEACHIN (Autism Partnership), JUSTIN B. LEAF (Autism Partnership) |
| Description: Children with autism and other autism spectrum disorders (ASD) typically have qualitative impairments in social interaction. Such impairments can range from a child's inability to develop appropriate peer relationships to a lack of enjoyment and interest in others, which can lead to a lower quality of life. Therefore, clinicians must teach social skills to children and adolescents diagnosed with ASD; however, it may be difficult for clinicians to find appropriate social curricula and effective ways to teach children with ASD social skills. The presenters will discuss the importance of teaching social skills; why social skills may be overlooked as part of a comprehensive curriculum; ways to select a comprehensive curriculum; what this comprehensive curriculum consists of; two teaching procedures (i.e., teaching interactions and cool versus not cool) that have been found to be effective in teaching social skills; the research behind these procedures; and ways clinicians can implement the intervention in the home, school, and community. The procedures and curriculum that will be discussed will mainly focus on high functioning children and adolescents diagnosed with ASD but can be applied to children and adolescents of different cognitive functioning levels or diagnoses. |
| Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this workshop, participants should be able to:
Identify the importance of teaching social skills to children and adolescents diagnosed with autism
Identify procedures to implement to facilitate friendship development
Identify the steps in implementing a teaching interaction procedure
Identify the steps in implementing the cool versus not cool procedure
Identify how to set up a social curriculum |
| Activities: The workshop will consist of lectures from the presenters, videos of children and adolescents with autism, other videos to highlight points on the importance of social skills, discussion with audience members, and questions from members of the audience. |
| Audience: The targeted audience for this workshop is clinicians who implement behavioral interventions for children and adolescents with autism. Teachers, professors, school administrators, parents, and graduate students would also benefit from attending the workshop. |
| Content Area: Practice |
| Instruction Level: Basic |
| Keyword(s): friendship development, social skills, teaching interactions |