School Holiday Social Squad Group Programs

Social communication skills play a vital role in our ability to form meaningful social relationships and enable us to function happily and successfully in everyday life. Children with social communication difficulties are less likely to initiate interactions with peers, spend less time interacting with peers, have lower ‘‘quality’’ interactions and spend a larger amount of time engaging in solitary hobbies.

Our current Social Squad group programs are aimed at 2 main age groups: Preteens - aged 9-12 (middle to upper primary school) Teenagers - aged 13 -18 (highschoolers) Participants generally have additional learning needs in the areas of social skills, language and cognition. Many of our participants have been engaged in 1:1 therapy through their primary school years and into high school. The groups are particularly suited to preteens and adolescents with social communication difficulties including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), pragmatic language difficulties with or without social anxiety and emotional regulation difficulties. When forming the groups we aim to match children by age and skill levels.

The pre-teenage years are a difficult time for many children and especially for those with learning challenges who find social situations difficult. Many pre and early teens, including those with language disorders and those with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), can find it difficult to make and maintain meaningful friendships and social connections. Our pre-teens program is for those children in middle to upper primary school who would benefit from additional explicit teaching of social skills and building social awareness and confidence in a safe, supportive space with therapists trained and experienced in social skills. Focus areas include: * Working out what other people are thinking and feeling * Understanding facial expressions and body language *Adjusting to new social situations *Solving social problems and using higher-level problem-solving skills such as compromise and negotiation *Understanding unwritten 'hidden' social rules * Sharing interests with others appropriately and knowing how to apply a 'social filter'

Our teens Social Squad Group Program is aimed at high schoolers who have generally participated in social skills program and therapy through primary school and need the next level of support in a fun, motivating group environment with like-minded students and facilitation by our highly experienced therapists trained in social skills therapy approaches. The group allows for a naturalistic way to teach and reinforce social interaction and communication skills. Activities will challenge each participants' ability to use verbal and non-verbal communication more effectively, work on active listening, collaboration, joint problem solving, planning and joint creativity. This group program will cover social interactions, time management, planning and buying from shops, money management, social media etiquette, stranger danger and public transport planning and management. Participants love the practical elements of this group! We focus on planning and preparing for possible social outings or joint functional tasks where we can all work together to contribute to the outcome. This might involve planning for a shopping trip, for example. This involves many steps and skills that we take for granted each day. You need to decide on a meal/snack, create a list of ingredients, plan your route to the shops, make sure you have enough money, divide up the tasks for an outing, buy ingredients for lunch and work together to make a snack. These groups are so much fun and aim to leave participants with improved social communication, social confidence, and new friendships too!