Teaching Specific Social Skills

• Teach social skills like you would teach math. Spell everything out. Be very specific. Drill over and over. Areas to target:
• Eye contact
• Tone of voice
• Facial expressions
• Hand gestures
• Humor
• Sarcasm
• Practice at home. Use a mirror. Listen to recorded speech.
• How to start, maintain, and end the play.
• The child may have to learn to say "Can I join in?", "What would you like to do next?", "Can you help me?".
• Flexibility, cooperation, sharing
• Explain that an activity is not 'wrong' if not done exactly how the child wants it to be done.
• How to avoid social play
• Teach your child how to say that he/she wants to be alone.

Adapted from: Asperger's Syndrome: Guidelines for Treatment and Intervention by Ami Klin, Ph.D., and Fred R. Volkmar, M.D. Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, Connecticut. Published by the Learning Disabilities Association of America, June 1995

Asperger's Syndrome: A guide for Parents and Professionals by Tony Attwood. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. London and Philadelphia, 2000