Julie is currently developing a social instruction program at Southwest Regional Rehabilitation Center in Battle Creek, Michigan.  This is similar to the former Perspectives program but has limited capacity.  Please call (269) 788-8090 for more information.

Group Opportunities:

It can be beneficial to group several students together so that learning, practicing and discussing strategies is relevant to the deficit areas of each participant.  Groups can be fun and positive and often lead to participants developing friendships with others who may share similar perspectives.   Groups are offered for school-aged individuals.  Students are most often best served in addressing social skills by providing them opportunities for instruction and practice within a group setting.  Many individuals who lack social understanding are more successful and comfortable interacting with adults.  Group instruction provides an opportunity for practice amongst age appropriate peers. 

Grouping students together appropriately is a vital piece of providing opportunity for success.  Students are generally grouped within a similar age range with a span of about three to four years (with occasional exceptions).  More importantly, groups are developed based on the individual strengths, needs and personalities of group members.  Groups generally consist of four to six participants along with two staff.  Generally we find that larger groups allow for more “typical” practice opportunities along with greater opportunities to connect with other members of the group.  On occasion, there may be a group as small as three students.  The maximum group size is six students. 

Perspectives Social Learning, LLC utilizes the Social BEST framework to help students recall and utilize some of the strategies that they learn.  B stands for Body, E for emotions, S for Speaking and T for thinking.  (See Julie’s article on Doing Your Social BEST in the Autism Asperger Digest) **link**In all social situations, it is necessary to monitor each of these areas of yourself as well as others. The information that is taught comes from various internationally known experts in the field of social thinking as well as those developed by instructors at Perspectives.  Perspectives strives to utilized the best evidence-based practices in teaching social skills.

All group sessions include a portion at the end of the session in which the instructor meets and talks with parents.  They will provide information about strategies taught and practice and feedback about the children in the group.  All group instructional programs require parent (or family) involvement.  Increasing social ability is highly dependent upon continuous reinforcement , so it is vital that parents learn what their children are learning and continue reinforcing these ideas on a day-to-day basis.