Structured approach - training social skills

[Guest guest]

Hi,

I just joined, and did a search on social skills, and came up with thousands of

hits. And so, I'm sorry if I'm posting a similar question to ones which have

previously been discussed, but I had a hard time sifting through all the social

skills posts on this mailing list.

I have a nine-year-old daughter with AS and ADD. She is a remarkable child, and

has come very far. There has been much improvement over the years. However, she

still has significant deficits in the area of social thinking and social skills.

We have worked with her extensively at home. However, in the school environment,

apart from some very basic therapy, there is very little focus on her social

skills and pragmatics.

I was wondering what your experiences are for those of you who have children

with Asperger's in public school systems. Do any of you have teams who will work

on a structured approach to training pragmatic language, social skills and

social thinking? When I talk about a structured approach, I am thinking about

something like the approach used by Winner in her book " Inside

out: what makes a person with social cognitive deficits tick? " When I read that

book, I realized that's exactly where my daughter is currently with her needs

for developing social skills. I also recently got onto the RDI website, and

need to look into that further. However, her educational team are just not

interested in following any kind of structured approach.

I would be very interested to hear your opinions about how educational teams

should work towards training appropriate social interaction and social skills

within the school environment? What has your experience been with the approach

used for your child in their school?

Thanks,

Bridgette