How to Teach Social Skills to High School Students With Autism
Autistic teens live a different existence than typical teens. Although quite often autistic people are of gifted intelligence, their intellectual abilities or intelligence functions are limited or make for a different approach to the thought process. Here are a few ideas on how to teach social skills to high school students with autism.
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Instructions
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Be patient. "Patience is a virtue," as they say, but I have opted for changing the term "virtue" to "necessity." Tell yourself openly that patience is an absolute necessity to help you to keep good control over yourself and your actions. According to Stephen M. Edelson, Ph.D. with the Center for the Study of Autism in Salem, Oregon, the most effective treatments in teaching social skills are sensory, medical and social. Following is a brief discussion of each.
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Try auditory sensory intervention. Listen to soothing music for a good relaxation technique. Classical music is used quite often with autistic children; it becomes a relaxing agent, staying that way into the teen years. (By all means, however, if your child tends to relax to a different kind of music, use that one.) Play the music and get into a nice relaxation arena before heading out the door into a social environment.
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Try visual sensory intervention. If you notice a teen becoming positively inspired by pictures of the outdoors or of outer space, stars and planets, work with those to encourage effective social interaction.
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Give your teen Vitamin B6, which has been shown to improve social skills of autistic people. Ask your doctor for the recommended dose.
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Look into the various common forms of communication that work well with autistic children. Sign language is recommended in many cases. Drawing pictures and other hand motions are also used a great deal, as well as speech, music, physical and occupational therapies. Communicating effectively is of vital importance. As parents, you must understand just how your children may be "speaking" to you so that you may understand them better, and they can tell you important things.
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Try social treatment, which involves using "social stories" created by Carol Gray. Present short stories to your teen that will help explain what will take place in an upcoming social situation. Or you can use short stories that illustrate various social skills. This will help encourage socially appropriate behavior when the real situations arise.
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Tips & Warnings
Ask your pediatrician or general practitioner for information about local support groups for parents.
Realize that 20 to 30 percent of autistic teens will develop an epileptic condition by adulthood. It's important to watch for possible signs.
Always begin with a medical diagnosis before treating a condition appearing to be autism.
Make a plan for teaching these social skills and stick to it
Don't push your child to be social. Due to delayed language development and preference for spending time by themselves, autistic kids for the most part prefer to be alone.
Resources
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