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| Socially Savvy: Assessing and Teaching Social Skills to Young Children With Autism |
| Friday, May 23, 2014 |
| 8:00 AM–3:00 PM |
| W184bc (McCormick Place Convention Center) |
| Area: AUT/PRA; Domain: Service Delivery |
| CE Instructor: James Ellis, Ph.D. |
| JAMES T. ELLIS (Step By Step Behavioral Solutions), CHRISTINE DANIELLE ALMEIDA (Newton Public Schools) |
| Description: This workshop will provide step-by-step guidance in assessing and teaching social skills to young children, primarily children ages three to five. Attendees will be introduced to the Socially Savvy Checklist, which is designed to help identify social strengths and weaknesses in young children. The attendees will then learn how to craft IEP objectives based on areas of weakness and determine and develop teaching and data collection procedures. Teaching strategies covered include systematic use of prompting and reinforcement strategies, development and use of detailed teaching plans, and the use of visual supports and social stories. A major focus of intervention will be on how to embed social-skills intervention in the context of a variety of typical, age-appropriate, and fun activities. Attendees will also learn how to create their own social-skills groups, allowing them to meet the varying social needs of different children within the same social context. |
| Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this workshop, the participant will be able to (1) use the Socially Savvy Social-Skills Checklist to determine social-skills strengths and weaknesses in young children, (2) develop IEP objectives based on information gathered through use of the checklist, (3) identify and develop teaching plans to address targeted social skills, (4) develop practical data collection systems, (5) identify age-appropriate and fun activities within which to teach social skills, and (6) design social-skills groups to simultaneously meet the varying social needs of multiple children. |
| Activities: Workshop objectives will be met through a balanced presentation of lecture, discussion, video observation, guided practice, and small group break-out. |
| Audience: Target audience includes BACB certificants and licensed psychologists, preschool and early elementary special educators, behavior analysts, speech-language pathologists, and other professionals working with young children with autism or other social impairments. |
| Content Area: Practice |
| Instruction Level: Intermediate |
| Keyword(s): Preschool, Social Pragmatics, Social Skills |