The FRIEND® Program for Creating Supportive Peer Networks for Students with Social Challenges, including Autism

The FRIEND® Program for Creating Supportive Peer Networks for Students with Social Challenges, including Autism PDF Author: Holly Sokol
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
ISBN: 1785926284
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
FRIEND is a social, communication and play-based program to help school-aged children with social challenges. All students deserve a positive school experience where they can reach their social and academic potential. However, this can prove difficult for students with challenges such as attention deficit, anxiety, or autism spectrum disorders, who may struggle daily with social situations. This manual provides everything educators need to support these students with their social skills in everyday situations, throughout their school years. This program is designed to help any student with social challenges, no matter how subtle. For students without social challenges, it teaches tolerance, acceptance and understanding. The characteristics of successful social skills programs are described, with an emphasis on how FRIEND implements them through three key components: the Peer Sensitivity Curriculum, the FRIEND Lunch Program and the FRIEND Playground Program. These can be implemented individually or in any combination as a comprehensive program. Parents and family are offered information on working together with schools and implementing FRIEND strategies at home and in the community. Emphasizing peer sensitivity, education and a supportive environment, FRIEND is for any educator wanting to create an inclusive and safe atmosphere for students to learn social skill-building strategies.

The FRIEND® Program for Creating Supportive Peer Networks for Students with Social Challenges, including Autism

The FRIEND® Program for Creating Supportive Peer Networks for Students with Social Challenges, including Autism PDF Author: Holly Sokol
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
ISBN: 1785926284
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
FRIEND is a social, communication and play-based program to help school-aged children with social challenges. All students deserve a positive school experience where they can reach their social and academic potential. However, this can prove difficult for students with challenges such as attention deficit, anxiety, or autism spectrum disorders, who may struggle daily with social situations. This manual provides everything educators need to support these students with their social skills in everyday situations, throughout their school years. This program is designed to help any student with social challenges, no matter how subtle. For students without social challenges, it teaches tolerance, acceptance and understanding. The characteristics of successful social skills programs are described, with an emphasis on how FRIEND implements them through three key components: the Peer Sensitivity Curriculum, the FRIEND Lunch Program and the FRIEND Playground Program. These can be implemented individually or in any combination as a comprehensive program. Parents and family are offered information on working together with schools and implementing FRIEND strategies at home and in the community. Emphasizing peer sensitivity, education and a supportive environment, FRIEND is for any educator wanting to create an inclusive and safe atmosphere for students to learn social skill-building strategies.

The Science of Making Friends

The Science of Making Friends PDF Author: Elizabeth Laugeson
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118127218
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 389

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Book Description
The groundbreaking book that puts the focus on teens and young adults with social challenges This book offers parents a step-by-step guide to making and keeping friends for teens and young adults with social challenges—such as those diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, bipolar, or other conditions. With the book’s concrete rules and steps of social etiquette, parents will be able to assist in improving conversational skills, expanding social opportunities, and developing strategies for handling peer rejection. Each chapter provides helpful overview information for parents; lessons with clear bulleted lists of key rules and steps; and expert advice on how to present the material to a teen or young adult. Throughout the book are role-playing exercises for practicing each skill, along with homework assignments to ensure the newly learned skills can be applied easily to a school, work, or other "real life" setting. Bonus content shows role-plays of skills covered, demonstrating the right and wrong way to enter conversations, schedule get-togethers, deal with conflict, and much more. PART ONE: GETTING READY Ch. 1: Why Teach Social Skills to Teens and Young Adults? PART TWO: THE SCIENCE OF DEVELOPING AND MAINTAINING FRIENDSHIPS Ch. 2: Finding and Choosing Good Friends Ch. 3: Good Conversations: The Basics Ch. 4: Starting and Entering Conversations Ch. 5: Exiting Conversations Ch. 6: Managing Electronic Communication Ch. 7: Showing Good Sportsmanship Ch. 8: Enjoying Successful Get-Togethers PART THREE: THE SCIENCE OF HANDLING PEER CONFLICT AND REJECTION: HELPFUL STRATEGIES Ch. 9: Dealing With Arguments Ch. 10: Handling Verbal Teasing Ch. 11: Addressing Cyber Bullying Ch. 12: Minimizing Rumors and Gossip Ch. 13: Avoiding Physical Bullying Ch. 14: Changing a Bad Reputation Epilogue: Moving Forward

Who Needs Friends?

Who Needs Friends? PDF Author: Laurie Leventhal-Belfer
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781481109840
Category : Autistic children
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Who Needs Friends?A Guide to The Friends Program:An intervention program that helps young children on the Autism Spectrum/ Asperger's Disorder and their Parents explore and expand their social world. For the past 15 years colleagues and graduate students have asked us if we have a handbook about our program that they could share with their trainees. Parents have also inquired about a handbook that they can share with family members and their children's teachers. So here it is, a reader friendly guidebook to The Friends Program. The program strives to replicate a preschool and elementary school setting to capture the challenges that these children experience at school, across social settings such as their home, and in after school activities. The program is unique in that the parents, experienced interpreters of their children's social world, attend every session. We learned early on that their observations and comments made during the parent's group provided the clinicians with insight that might otherwise take months to acquire. A parent immediately knew which movie or video their child was referring to during the table discussion. They understood why a child may look distressed at the start of a session or what they were eager to share in the group. The program runs on the academic calendar since we have learned that different issues arise at different times such as the opening of the school year, holidays, and tests. Our curriculum is not standardized but molds to fit the issues the children are currently raising, i.e., making new friends, keeping your cool, bullying, and collaboration. The goal of this program is to enhance a child's Social Communication, capacity for shared symbolic Play, understanding of Emotions and Emotional Regulation, verbal Communication and Sensory Regulation (SPECS). The book defines each area and elaborates on how these goals are addressed in different activity themes. Each activity has a theme, goal, and strategies that address the SPECS. The goal for the parents is to increase their understanding of their child, and provide a safe and supportive setting where they can openly share with the clinical facilitator and fellow parents the stages they travel as parents of children on the Autism Spectrum/ Asperger's Disorder. The journey involves stages of denial, anger and frustration, bargaining, sadness, advocacy, and acceptance. This journey does not travel a linear path but moves up and down in relationship to how their child is doing. The stages come to life with direct quotes from the parents along with a story written by a parent who was not aware of how we were going to present this process in our first book, Asperger's Disorder in Young Children (2004). Over time an increasing number of fathers are attending each session and that has provided a rich insight into the paths that couples travel. The group parents provide each other with ongoing support years after they leave the group, often sending us updates on the progress their child has made or their recent achievements as (for example) an Eagle Scout, in the martial arts, in the arts, or in their transition to college. The book contains the charts that we use in the group, a guide to children's books we use in our program, and a list of books for professionals and parents. Lastly we provide a review of our pilot outcome study, preliminary data, and a set of outcome measures. Nothing is more satisfying than watching a child who asked their parents and the staff at the start of the program, "who needs friends?", leave the program with a desire to maintain the friendships they made in the group and gradually expand their social world with a little nudge and lots of love from their parents.

Friends Are...?

Friends Are...? PDF Author: Ymkje Wideman-van der Laan
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781530580620
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 34

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Book Description
Logan has trouble with sharing, and teases a friend. His grandma teaches him how to be a good friend with some fantastic friendship rules. Children on the autism spectrum often want to interact with other children, but they sometimes have trouble making friends. Learning how to foster appropriate friendships can avoid problems as they grow older, prevent bullying, and lead to better relationships with peers with or without autism-and the earlier these skills are learned, the better. Non-autistic children usually learn social skills naturally and in a spontaneous way, by watching and mingling with everyone around them, but children with autism may need to learn these skills in a more tangible way, through social stories, role play, and other means. My grandson has been very fortunate in attending an excellent after-school program, which focuses specifically on social skills. Still, putting what he learns into practice with his peers and friends does not come naturally to him. One day, after a particularly rough day, he asked me if I could please write another book for him. When I inquired what it should be about, he responded that it should be about making friends, and that he wanted me to call it, Friends Are...? Of course, this book is by no means a comprehensive manual on how children on the autism spectrum can nurture friendships, but I hope that the different "friendship rules" in Friends Are...? can be a springboard for conversation, as they were for my grandson and me, and that the Word List and Fantastic Friendship Rules Checklist in the back of the book will be helpful to you as you teach your child the important social skills needed for developing good friendships.

PEERS® for Young Adults

PEERS® for Young Adults PDF Author: Elizabeth A. Laugeson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315297035
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 824

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Book Description
PEERS® for Young Adults presents the first evidence-based group treatment program for young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder, as well as other neurodevelopmental disorders and social challenges. Inside, readers will find a critical step forward in the dissemination of effective behavioral interventions for young adults in the form of 16 engaging group session outlines that are both user-friendly and backed by empirical research. Each session is accompanied by homework assignments and practice suggestions designed to reinforce the group’s understanding of the skills learned during each meeting. This practical resource will prove to be an invaluable reference for any clinician or educator working with this population.

Destination Friendship

Destination Friendship PDF Author: Mary Benton
Publisher: AAPC Publishing
ISBN: 9781934575901
Category : Autism spectrum disorders
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
A curriculum for teaching friendship skills using a fun group format. Participants take part in hands-on activities that are geared to their strengths and preferred learning styles.

Social Skills Instruction for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Social Skills Instruction for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders PDF Author: Tiffany Lynn Born
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Although there is a push to include students with autism spectrum disorders in the general academic context, students with autism are often not fully included in the social environment of schools. Even when students with autism are in the same settings as their typically developing peers, they often have few social interactions with their peers (e.g., Carter, Hughes, Guth, & Copeland, 2005). One reason for the dearth of social interactions that students with autism have during the school day may be related to deficits in social skills which can interfere with interactions with peers. Peer networks, a type of peer-mediated intervention, have been shown to be effective in increasing the social contacts and relationships of students with disabilities. In peer networks, gains in social interactions are accomplished by providing training to general education peers who compromise a social network for the student with a disability (SWD) outside of the classroom setting. However, the literature on peer networks varies as to if specific social skills training for the SWD is included and often does not fully examine specific or even general social skills deficits of the SWD. This study examined the effectiveness of a peer network plus intervention which incorporated an explicit social skills training component within a peer network framework. Four participants with an educational diagnosis of autism participated in a 10 week peer network intervention. A social skills training component was added to the peer network systematically. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the peer network plus intervention for (a) enhancing targeted social skills of the students with autism, (b) enhancing broader social skills as measured by multiple social skill and adaptive questionnaires, and (c) increasing the number of social contacts, friendships, and interactions students with autism have in high schools. In addition, the social validity of this intervention was measured in order to determine the feasibility and acceptability for use in schools and by school personnel. Finally, the study examined the sensitivity of the Autism Social Skills Profile (ASSP, Bellini & Hopf, 2007) for use as a progress monitoring tool with these interventions. Using a multiple baseline across participants design, this study demonstrated that the social skills component of the peer network plus intervention was effective at improving the targeted social skills of all four participants. Two independent coders found Strong Overall Evidence for improvements in social skills when the social skills component was added for each participant. There was Moderate Overall Evidence for the impact of the social skills training component on the number of interactions students with autism had with their peers during the network meetings. Students with autism, peers without disabilities, and school staff interventionists all rated the intervention favorably. The ASSP was not consistently sensitive enough to detect improvements in social skills for all participants. Implications of the study, as well as limitations and directions for future research, are discussed.

Social Skills and Autism

Social Skills and Autism PDF Author: Annette Nuñez, PhD
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
Does your child with autism have a difficult time making friends at school or on the playground? Does he/she have a hard time interacting with peers or understanding body language and tone of voice? Please know your child is not alone.One of the biggest challenges people on the autism spectrum can face is communication. Some kids experience delays in speech development, while others have difficulty understanding jokes, teasing, or sarcasm. Social skills are not intuitive, which can sometimes make forming friendships and fitting in much harder. That's where social skills support comes in. Have you been searching for strategies to help promote social skills success? Whether your family is new to an autism diagnosis or you have been managing autism for years, The Best of Autism Parenting Magazine: Social Skills and Autism is for YOU. Author and autism advocate Temple Grandin once told me she considers social skills not only crucial for forming and building relationships but also necessary for gaining independence. Diagnosed with autism as a toddler, Grandin said autistic children should learn to play with others (sharing, taking turns, pretend play), talk to others, manage emotions, and discover ways to solve problems. When a child with autism develops social skills, he/she can form meaningful friendships, communicate, and gain vital life skills. Kids with autism do want to communicate and make friends, but they don't always know how to do it in a way that all people can understand. Finding the resources you need to help your child gain social skills can be tough. Our extraordinary group of writers has tackled this topic in myriad ways over the years. To create a comprehensive resource for our autism families, we have compiled our top social skills articles from nearly 100 Autism Parenting Magazine issues. Take a look as our writers have covered ways to help your child with autism foster independence, techniques to create social opportunities, and tips on making a trip to the doctor more comfortable for your child. We also have articles focusing on ways to enhance social interactions, manage executive functioning skills, and tips on how to use social stories to foster communication.Teaching social skills can become a simple, everyday experience for your family. As you read this special issue, you will discover ways your family can work on social skills while playing video games, such as Minecraft, or when playing simple board games together. Including siblings when working on skills is also an essential part of development, and it helps to build relationships. Video Self-Modeling provides another excellent opportunity for your child to practice ways to respond when meeting new people. Several articles in this issue are devoted to teens and young adults as they, in particular, can always use communication strategies. Perhaps your child would benefit from attending a social skills class or joining a group? Or maybe it would be helpful to learn ways to improve phone and workplace manners? And of course, dating advice is covered in this issue as well. This special compilation contains advice from Annette Nuñez, PhD, Marcia Eckerd, PhD, Dorian Townsend, PhD, Melissa M. Root, PhD, Debra Moore, PhD, Jamie E. Carter, PhD, Randy Kulman, PhD, Sharon Link, PhD, Katherine Walton, PhD, Rachel Bédard, PhD, Angelina M., MS, BCBA, LMFT, Elizabeth Sautter, MA, CCC-SLP, Monica C. Hudnall, MA, CCC-SLP, Maria Johnson, MA, CCC-SLP, LMFT, Brett J. Novick, MS, LMFT, CSSW, Sarah Kupferschmidt, MA, BCBA, Mallory Griffith, MA, CCC-SLP, Ahna I. O'Shaughnessy, MA, Lori Granieri, MA, Gabi Morgan, MS, L-ABA, Lisa Timms, MS, Special Education, Kim Barloso, Tali Berman, Deb Marcello, Alan D.D, Sam Flatman, Kirt Manecke, Marc Zimmerman, Casey Wimsatt, Annie Eskeldson, Leanne Strong, Betti Wilson, Dawn Potter, Rachel Jackson

Social Skills for Teenagers with Developmental and Autism Spectrum Disorders

Social Skills for Teenagers with Developmental and Autism Spectrum Disorders PDF Author: Elizabeth A. Laugeson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135240671
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 539

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Book Description
This book is essential reading for any clinician or researcher working with teens with autism spectrum disorders. This parent-assisted intervention for teens is based on a comprehensive, evidence-based, 14-week program at UCLA’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, the manualization of the popular UCLA PEERS Program, and the success of the Children’s Friendship Training (Routledge, 2002) manual for children. After reviewing techniques designed to help parents and therapists tailor the manual to the needs of the teens with whom they are working, the text moves on to the individual treatment sessions and strategies for tackling issues such as developing conversational skills, choosing friends, using humor, get-togethers, teasing, bullying, gossiping, and handling disagreements. Each session chapter includes handouts, homework assignments, descriptions of what to expect (and how to handle challenges in delivering the intervention), and customized tips for both parents and therapists.

Friends with Autism

Friends with Autism PDF Author: Roxanne N. Zamora
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Autistic children
Languages : en
Pages : 124

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Book Description
The rise in the number of students found to have autism has been staggering over the past ten years. Accommodating these students effectively and appropriately in a public school is a challenge many teachers are deemed with, sometimes without adequate training. This study was aimed at affecting the underlying social misunderstandings inherent to students with Autism Spectrum Disorder and an at-risk general education peer through a comprehensive intervention consisting of peer mentoring, interactive social stories and video modeling strategies. Observations, student interviews, vignettes and student and researcher journals served as data sources. Three fourth grade boys, including a student with autism, a peer with behavioral concerns and a model peer, participated in an intervention designed using a multiple baseline across behaviors. The target students, including the student with autism and the peer with behavioral concerns increased their ability to demonstrate three distinctive skills, attending to task, raising hand and academic responding. Analysis of the data also showed an overall increase in levels of engagement and motivation. Strong friendships developed among all three participants. Implications suggest that a comprehensive approach is effective in reducing unwanted social behaviors and promoting positive social skills and gives further insight into the target students' motivation.