Social Skills Training for Children

 

After researching most of the books on the market for Aspergers children and teens, this is surely the most practical source on social skills training. It’s not a theoretical treatise, but a user-friendly way to quickly teach relevant skills to students with AS. I recommend to parents and teachers alike.

this book seems to target children under 12 years of age. It has very few pointers for adolescents. this book tends to be aimed at the education profession rather than parents.

he positives of the book are that a great number of important skills are covered and the strategies for teaching and reinforcing them are presented. These features will grab teachers desperate in most cases for some guidance.

In my opinion, the negatives are that not every skill is reducible to the format of the book. Many skills are more subtle and difficult to learn, and practice, than others. Also many communciation skills are primarily nonverbal and that needs to be emphasised when dealing with AS adolescents. These issues could have been addressed at greater length in the book and given the intended audience more theoretical work could have been introduced. One final quibble I have is grouping those with AS and social communication difficulties together. I think this is a mistake. AS has a distinct set of diagnsotic criteria. Social communication difficulties can arise from a variety of non AS related sources. Boundary blurring is not something I favour.

Many teachers and therapists will find this a practical book. It is not as linguistically geared up as I would like, but it is very accessible. Ultimately no one book is going to work with every child or group.