Socialization with Children with Special Needs in Schools

Socialization with Children with Special Needs in Schools and Therapeutic Groups Socialization Emerging through the Functional Emotional Developmental Milestones

Children with Developmental Delays Can Develop: Empathy The ability to read emotional signals The ability to negotiate with peers

Typical Social Development • The emotion selects the behavior Build foundations from the bottom up. Create heightened states of emotionality to help the child use and connect emotions to his behavior. Example: A big smile gives a word like “hi” real warmth and meaning.

Principals of The Greenspan Floortime Approach The same 3 principals apply when helping children socialize with peers that apply when encouraging children to relate and communicate adults. However, they will look different in application. Follow the child’s lead Challenge up the developmental ladder Expand the challenge

Traditional Social Skills and Goals Sharing Taking Turns Compromising Theory of Mind (putting yourself in the other persons shoes)

Developmental Social Goals are the Stages of Development used in a social setting Regulation and Shared attention Engagement Basic communication Continuous flow and Shared problem-solving Using ideas creatively and spontaneously Using ideas logically Higher levels of thinking

Organization and Techniques to Encourage Socialization

Social Interaction Fundamentals Start with smaller groups (dyads) and move slowly to larger ones. Create multiple environments, sensory and symbolic, to encourage different types of interactions. Remember that child/adult play is different from child/child play. Other children don’t always entice, initiate, or counter-regulate

Group Organization Make sure all children in the group are solid at the 4 th milestone with adults: Shared social problem solving and Continuous flow. Have children with complimentary sensory system. An underreactive child and sensory seeking child. You can include children with similar and/or different developmental profiles. Optimally the children should balance each other out with their profiles.

Techniques to Encourage Socialization Allow children to create their own interactions or games, and follow their lead. Facilitate maintained regulation, attention, and engagement. Encourage sensory based games and semistructured activities. Often we need to semi-structure or introduce a sensory based activity to facilitate interest and attention Remember the goal is to encourage the interaction between the children, don’t do all the work for them. Encourage them to seek each others help or participation.

Techniques to Encourage Socialization Use your affect to entice the children toward a common activity or each other. Use your body to help a child carry out their social goal i. e. playful obstruction Ask questions to help the children maintain focus on each other and the activity. ex. When a child wants to play a game, ask the child, “What do your friends think? ” or “What do your friends want to play? ”

Techniques to Encourage Socialization Create physical problems that need to be solved with the help of many children Encourage a child to get a friend to help them. Ask questions that encourage the children to agree on different decisions before they get a need met. What should we do? Swing or bounce?

Techniques to Encourage Socialization If children are having trouble initiating their own games or activities, or are getting disregulated, use Semi-structured games Art projects Music Initially structure the expectations, and allow them to expand creatively.

Facilitators must always… Encourage interaction/communication between the children. Redirect children toward one another vs. doing the floortime yourself Counter-regulate Keep environment under control Patience Let the interaction develop naturally

The Floortime Center Contact Information: 4827 Rugby Ave. Bethesda, MD 20814 Email: info@dirss. com Website: www. thefloortimecenter. com Phone: (301) 657 -1130