Life Skills/Social Skills

[cjbeach]

UGH. One thing I *promised* myself I would keep on top of when I pulled my HFA son from school was to keep up on life skills and social skills. Money and time has prevented me from doing both. He recently qualified for 15 hours of behavior therapy a week (which for him = social skills therapy) so I've really slacked.
Has anyone ever used this Life Skills book (http://www.amazon.com/Life-Skills-Kids-Equipping-Child/dp/0877884722/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269358377&sr=8-1)? Common sense but I need that ... I need to compile a checklist of things to teach and check them off, I'm wired that way.
I'm also cRaZy about Michelle Garcia-Winner's social skills programs. I've heard wonderful, wonderful things about her programs from people who have used them. www.socialthinking.com (http://www.socialthinking.com) but because of cost, have not purchased a single book yet.

With you ASD kiddos....... do you implement these into your homeschool curriculum? Any recommendations?

My first year hs'ing I was very strict (with myself) about doing these daily and I really saw a difference. Goofy things, for example - I bought one of those stand-up clear paper holders (like the restaurants use to put menus in) and I put one on our table for Our Table Manners (and on the flip side had a print out from Emily Post on Table Manners). Awesome. It was a wonderful tool for my 2 kiddos. Now that I have 3 I need to put it back out again.
I also did weekly life skills lessons (examples: that he could make a phone call with appropriateness, what to do in case of emergency, SAFETY and basic health habits, sandwich making, bed making, tying shoes, even riding a bike without training wheels). I found that if I put it on my lesson plan for the week *I* seemed make sure these common sense things that were more difficult for my ASD kiddo... were covered/conquered.

FWIW, if you have a little one, my experience is to implement these into your day. My HFA son "gets" academics, it's the social and basic skills he does NOT "get."

[dtsmamtj]

Here is another option: http://www.joyceherzog.info/Joyce_Herzog/Teacher_Helps.html Joyce Herzog created "Lukes Lists." Although I don't write in mine, I do use it as a sort of reference book. I try to catch "teachable" moments everyday to help my son in social settings. I have looked at the "social thinking" but funds are tight. I haven't read the life skills book yet, might check it out of the library if they have it.

T

[hsbaby]

I use Model Me Kids with my HFA dd (13). Right now we are working through the "Conversation Cues" workbook/DVD. This is an area she really struggles in. She also attends a social skills group at our local Autism Foundation.

[dsmith]

We've been using social stories with ds if I know something is coming up. I had bought a book a while ago, and found examples online to help me create them. I use an old program called Storybook Weaver to illustrate them and print it into a booklet form. I've done this for parties, visits to relatives and friends, trick or treating, the mall, etc. It takes some time on my part, but it's been helpful for modeling expected behavior and helping him to handle things he has trouble with. I have various resources for social skills, but most of them are geared for behaving in school, so we do a lot of tweaking. We've been working slowly on life skills mainly by having him follow me around doing household stuff, help with food shopping and cooking, etc... I am looking for something to help him learn about money and was thinking about Dave Ramsey. I really feel like I'm not doing enough though, and social skills is a real problem - we have a dual dx of Aspergers and selective mutism, so I've been looking for someone to work with him that doesn't cost $150/hr. :glare: