Social Skills Classes

Our Social Skills classes focus on core skills that are used in a variety of social situations.  We use the AIM (Accept. Identify. Move) curriculum developed by Dr. Mark Dixon & Dana Paliliunas to drive our class content. This is A Behavior Analytic Curriculum for Social-Emotional Development in Children. Our classes develop mindful practice, therapeutic reconditioning, use a functional approach to behavior and encourage willingness, acceptance and self-awareness. We strive to help children experiencing social discomfort while addressing challenging behaviors. The classes use everyday struggles with life that we all can relate to as the platform for social reflection, interpretation, exploration and navigation.

 

Social skills classes are offered Monday through Friday. We do not offer these classes as stand alone classes. They are part of a comprehensive program. These classes are requested through your child's treatment plan. Authorization required and co-pays may apply.

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Our classes focus on the Six core processes of the AIM Hexaflex:

• Present Moment - Focuses on engaging the individual with his or her experiences with the world directly, by developing awareness of thoughts, feelings, and sensations.

  • Example: Headspace App ( This can be found on Netflix, YouTube, or App) 

• • Example activity - Prioritization Pyramid - Write out a hierarchy of our own values.

• Committed action - Refers to the development of larger and larger behavior patterns that linked to values, or individual reinforcers.

  • Example activity - Flat tire - We all get flat tires from time to time but when we have a plan we can change that tire we can move on quickly. 

• Self-as-context - Develops and harnesses the individual’s ability to take perspectives in order to create a distinction between one’s self-as-content, or the content his/her past experiences, and self-as-context, or the stable, continuous awareness of his/her experiences without attachment to them.    

  • Example activity - Mindful Specs - Sometimes we might have blurry vision that makes us see events differently than how they occurred. When we stop to notice things going on as they occur, how is that like improving our vision. 

• Defusion - Encourages the individual to let go of the need to control or eliminate distressing thoughts or experiences by changing the way he/she interacts with them.

  • Example - Cutting the string - It’s hard to let things go. Imagine your thought written on a balloon and then imagine as you cut the string and watch that thought float away. 

• - An alternative to experiential avoidance, which involves an individual’s willingness to experience external and internal experiences, both the good and the bad, fully and without judgement.

  • Example - Saying “yes”  - Have you ever avoided something and then ended up liking  it? We practice saying “yes”  when we might normally say no! 

 

 

 

 

Ryuu Social Skills Classes

 

            Ryuu is a social skills development program that targets social-emotional development for children and teens who have a diagnosis on the Autism spectrum. This program utilizes a fantasy world of dragons with varying social-emotional difficulties across different social environments and scenarios. Through a strategic program, clients will navigate social challenges with appropriate tools and strategies that will assist in identifying social-emotional deficits, and providing possible solutions. This is accomplished through interactive social activities, role play scenarios, and peer based social interactions. 

 

Ryuu Components:

 

            Dragons: Each dragon represents a social-emotional challenge. These include reciprocity in conversation, coping with anger, fitting into a peer group, empathy, and maintaining friendships. In order to conquer each challenge, the dragon must evolve using an acquired set of social strategies. 

 

            Light and Dark Forces: The light and dark forces are comprised of builders and destructors. The builders, or light forces are made up of social skills tools that can assist in navigating various social environments. The dark forces, or destructors are comprised of social difficulties that compromise social skills. Examples include Flexibility v. Rigidity, and Interactor v. Isolator. 

            Antidotes and Poisons: The antidotes are made up of present moment strategies that are easily accessible in all environments to cope in challenging situations. The poisons are made up of destructive social responses that prevent the client from navigating a social environment successfully. Examples include Contentment v. Doomsayer, and Gray Beauty v. Black & White thinking.