With the addition of Cindy Ziobrowski to our team this past year, my world has expanded immensely into the needs and challenges of the Autism community on many levels. One of which is the underdevelopment of the social skills piece for these individuals.
As I have learned more about the unique gifts and deficits of children on the spectrum, I have grown to appreciate that these gifts and deficits are not unlike mainstream children and teens today. Social skills being the most obvious of them all. We do a decent job in most schools at recognizing and addressing some social pieces (bullying, drugs, health education) but lack in the underlying piece that makes all these successful…and that is social interaction skills.
Please do not think I am advocating that the schools take this piece on as well. We have shuffled too many parenting responsibilities onto the schools through the years. Yet I ask, how do we help these young individuals acquire good social skills in the absence of learning them from their families? A rude awaking awaits them as they enter the real world. We see them stumbling along every day around us.
I don’t have the answer but starting a conversation is always a great place to begin. If you have something to contribute please feel free to contact us or Like us on Facebook and let’s get the conversation going.
Please give us a call at 603-953-5025 or send an email to allison@netutors.com if you would like to see us tackle a specific challenge in one of our monthly updates.
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