5 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

1. Jed Baker has done it again. This is a nice follow-up to his social picture book. This is done nicely because you can pick and choose which areas you need to work on. Most children could use help with social skills to reduce anxiety, regardless of whether they have issues. My son does not have aspergers and his social skills issues are minimum but with practice the skills he has have been greatly refined.The program can be used in parts at home by parents with minimal training or in a school environment with speech therapists etc.
   Rating: 5 / 5

   1. JDS on March 4th, 2010 at 4:02 am

2. This book is an excellent resource for those who want to assist children and young adults with social skills training. There are clear cut lessons and activities that cover a variety of topics from how to greet others to asking someone on a date. Very valuable for those who need concrete examples of the correct way to approach many different social situations. Could be used for children on the autism spectrum, but also for any child who could benefit from practice in social interaction, even those who are shy. Anyone who lives and works with students who have social skills defecits would find this book useful.
   Rating: 5 / 5

   2. L. Bress on March 4th, 2010 at 2:56 am

3. 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.
   Rating: 5 / 5

   3. Beth Sklar on March 3rd, 2010 at 11:57 pm

4. I haven’t changed my mind about my first thoughts on this book. It struck me as a competent down to Earth book on social skills training. Largely the book outlines the relevant skill on the left hand page and then provides an explanation of the purpose of the skill and how it can be best developed on the right hand side. It reminded me up to a point of the Boystown Teaching Basic Social Skills manuals.

   The 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.

   One of the strengths of teenagers with High Functioning Austim and Asperger Syndrome is their language skills. Few interventions leverage these skills, while at the same time catering for the behavioural dimension. For a combined programme I would recommend also looking at Succeeding with Interventions for Asperger Syndrome Adolescents. Combined hybrid programs are the next generation interventions.
   Rating: 4 / 5

   4. John Harpur on March 3rd, 2010 at 10:56 pm

5. As a parent homeschooling a child with Asperger Syndrome, I�ve bought about a dozen books to help me teach my child social skills. This one is the most useful I�ve found. Most books on this topic are aimed only at teachers and are hard to adapt to use at home with one child; that�s not the case with this book. While the book includes instructions for school personnel and describes how to teach the skills in classrooms and small groups, it is relatively free of educational jargon and doesn�t waste too much space on things that useless to me, like reproducible handouts for the children to take home to their parents.

   The skills are broken down into small steps and are very specific, which is helpful with my literal-minded child. As a socially adept adult, I sometimes have trouble finding ways to explain social conventions, like the �Two-Question Rule,� as Baker calls it: �When others as you a question and you answer it, you can ask a similar question right back.� I�m sure I do this every day (�How are you?� �Fine, how are you?�), and yet it would have taken me ages to find a way to sum this up for my child.

   The skills are broken down into six categories: Conversational Skills, Cooperative Play Skills, Friendship Management, Self-Regulation, Empathy, and Conflict Management. The skills range from �Maintaining Appropriate Physical Distance from Others� to �Giving Criticism in a Positive Way�. Each skill is covered on two pages. One page lists guidelines for following the rule, and includes a small fill-in-the-blank space where children can plan when they will try out the skill and later report how it worked. The facing page lists suggested activities for teaching and reinforcing the skill.

   I was also pleased to find that Baker�s The Social Skills Picture Book covers many of the skills in Social Skills Training, so I have been using the picture book as a companion to this book. Actually seeing photos of children using the skills (or making mistakes) helps to fix the rules in his mind.
   Rating: 5 / 5

   5. Dreamdog on March 3rd, 2010 at 9:54 pm