LESS THAN 1 MIN READ
Tips to Help Your Child Socialize
By: Kristen Hogg, Autism Specialist
A few tips to help your child socialize:
- Teach them that friendship is a choice and how to choose appropriate friends.
- Teach them how to have a two-way conversation and share information with the other person without being a conversation hog.
- Teach them how to use appropriate humor and how to receive humor feedback.
- Teach them the importance of online safety and how to make friends safely online.
- Teach them how to be a good sport.
If you aren’t even sure where to start with these tips, look into getting your child joined in a PEERS social skills group. We teach kids/teens how to do these things by asking questions, using "buzzwords" or rules, watching role-play videos, and actually role-playing with the instructors and the group. Your child is then given "homework" to practice what we learned about in that lesson with parents, family, and friends at home or in the community.
The goal of the PEERS social skills group is to help your child/teen learn how to make and keep friends, to help parents/caregivers more effectively support their child/teen’s efforts at finding suitable friends, and to help your child/teen foster independence with his or her social relationships.
Contact Outpatient Services for more information at 316-634-8710.
