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Planning a Successful Social Skills Group for Children With Autism: Practical Methods and Solutions for Teaching Social Skills in a Group Setting |
Friday, May 28, 2010 |
6:00 PM–9:00 PM |
Texas Ballroom Salon F (Grand Hyatt) |
Area: AUT/EDC; Domain: Service Delivery |
CE Instructor: Mike Stoutimore, Ph.D. |
AMANDA C AZARBEHI (Tyndale University), ROSTAM AZARBEHI (Azarbehi Consulting) |
Description: In recent years the occurrence of autism has appeared to be on the rise. Recent studies have estimated rates in North America to range from 30 to 60 in 10,000 ( Fombonne, 2008; Croen, & Daniels 2007). With educators encountering an increased number of students with autism there is more need than ever to identify effective classroom intervention strategies. A central deficit of children with autism is their poor social-communication skills. Social skills groups or camps are becoming and increasingly popular way of addressing these challenges.
While therapists and educators recognize the social challenges faced by children with autism, they often find it challenging to know how to best address these needs. The proposed workshop will aim to review the recent research examining the effectiveness of the most commonly used social skills group techniques for children with autism. The goal of this workshop will be to equip educators with research-supported, practical, and easy-to-implement strategies for running social skills groups for elementary-age children with autism. Lecture, video demonstrations, and small group activities will be incorporated into this workshop. Participants will leave with a newly developed “tool box” of techniques which can be used to successfully run a social skills group.
Dr. Azarbehi has over a decade of experience working as a researcher and therapist within the field of autism. She has served as a member of the New Brunswick Autism Steering Committee, helping to secure funding for, create, and run a province-wide autism intervention training program. Dr. Azarbehi’s research focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of early autism intervention programs. She currently works as a professor at Tyndale University College and as clinical developmental psychologist at North York General Hospital. |
Learning Objectives: The workshop has the following goals:
1. equip educators with research-supported, practical, and easy-to-implement strategies for running social skills groups for elementary-age children with autism;
2. that participants will leave with a newly developed “tool box” of techniques which can be used to successfully run a social skills group. |
Activities: Lecture, video demonstrations, and small group activities will be incorporated into this workshop. |
Audience: Professionals working within the field of autism early intervention. |
Content Area: Practice |
Instruction Level: Intermediate |