Autism: Are Social Skills Groups and Social Communication Therapy Worthwhile?

vortex2.71 (802986) writes I imagine that enough of us on Slashdot are on the Autism Spectrum or were once diagnosed as having Aspergers that this might be the right venue for this question. My son is on the spectrum, but is in a mainstream classroom at a private school. We have spent thousands of dollars on a bunch of different social skills groups, speech communication therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy. We've found that the specific skills and intuition that the therapists possess is much more important than their credentials and are frequently disappointed by the overwhelming mediocrity of special education teachers, speech therapists, and OT/PT therapists. We are at the point where we wonder if our time is better spent with playdates with peers that are facilitated by us than continuing with the groups. I'm curious if there are adult Slashdoters who are on the spectrum who participated in these therapies as children who can weigh in on this? What was your experience with social skills groups and social communication therapy? Did they help?

Comments

Re: Aspergers, LOL

[Anonymous Coward]

It probably doesn't help that this child is enrolled at a private school, too. While those who earned their own wealth can sometimes be reasonable people, those who got it handed to them by their parents are almost always entitled little shits who see themselves as far more important than they really are. Get a bunch of them together in a clsssroom, and of course there will be snobbery and social disfunction. That's just what happens when there are too many roosters trying to rule a small roost.

They can be helped

[gurps_npc]

It is clear from every one of the many successful Autistic people that Autistic people can be taught to fit into our world better.

They are not robots, they are people capable of learning social skills, just as they can learn math, art, and other human knowledge.

The question is do we know how to teach them?

I don't know a lot, but I am willing to bet that autistic people are as different from each other as they differ from us. The whole thing is a spectrum, what works with one won't necessary work with others.

I think you original idea is correct. No particular accreditation will satisfy you. You need to talk to the specific teacher/aid and hear what they have to say, what they know, and what is their guiding principle. If they impress you go with them. If not, ignore them.

Re:They can be helped

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree and disagree; here are my two cents:

Having been self-diagnosed and officially-diagnosed with several "social disorders", I have put considerable time into your question, since it is a reasonable expectation that I may need the answer when the time comes.

The solution for me was boarding school. I was sent to a school, around the age of middle school, which put extra emphasis on social interaction. This pool of ~200 peers addressed the point gurps_npc brings up. S/he is correct; your child is likely very different from you, even if you too are on the spectrum.

I can not tell you how transformative it was to have regular therapist visits, weekly group therapy, physical exercise, and the structured support of staff. By far, the real impact is learning how to deal with peers and having them and I both buffered by the staff, reminding us how to be appropriate to one another.

My last thought, which I feel very strongly about:
Short social interactions will not solve his problems. The interactions may be long enough in the moment, but the structured flow will lend to disconnected analysis of such interaction vs being forced to "just be in the moment". I have watched this issue exacerbate in my siblings as we have gotten older, and it can be crippling.

If you respond to this post, we can find a way to follow up if you would like to have a deeper conversation.

Re:They can be helped

[gordondev]

There's a saying in Autistic circles -- if you've met one Autistic person, you've met...one Autistic person. :)

And no, we aren't robots. However, while we may be able to learn social skills, they don't get completely ingrained the way they do for neurotypical people. It's always a conscious process for us. That's where the limitation comes in. The conscious processing of social situations is slower and takes more effort/energy than the subconscious processing neurotypicals generally do. Additionally, the problem with social interaction is that there is far more nuance than Autistics can pick up on and process in the short time required. To compound matters, these nuances are often contradictory to one another, and a lot of people have a tendency to say what they don't mean, even when their body language says something else. This results in a great deal of confusion and second-guessing going on, even while trying to process what the person has said and formulate a response. Even in what appears to be a simple conversation, there can be four different things going on in one's head in an effort to process and understand all the little "between the lines" things that are going on in the situation.

Toss em in the deep end

[Drethon]

I've never been diagnosed, a few online tests put me solidly Aspergers but that doesn't mean a whole lot. With that being said, for myself I've never been able to intuitively understand social interaction. Over time I've been able to think through social interaction and get a better handle on them.

My parents tried putting me in a learning disability freshmen orientation in college but I went to the normal orientation instead. I've found the best teacher is just time being around people. The more I observe, the more it seems to make sense.

And ultimately I've just come to the realization that we are all weird in our own way, anyone who can't handle that can stick to their own clan.

Re:I'm not autistic

[pr0fessor]

I'm sure that if I were a child today I would be diagnosed with all kinds of disorders ADD, ADHD, ASD, OCD, etc... Today kids are diagnosed with those type disorders at the drop of a hat and often times by school teachers and school counselors based on one or two incidents that happen in a.the classroom. I have five sons and every last one of them had a teacher like that. They all grew up to be normal and healthy.

Re:No

[unimacs]

I could argue that those are different things entirely but instead let's assume that more tolerance and acceptance of people with Aspergers is something that society should move towards. It won't happen overnight. You must manage with the hand that was dealt to you, - not the one you wish you had.

For example I don't have Aspergers but I was very shy as a kid. As a teenaged boy this does not lead to many dates. I used to get upset over the expectation that the boy had to be the one to make the first move. "They can come to me" was my attitude. You can imagine how well that worked.

Eventually rather than lamenting over the way the world operated and that it wasn't fair to people like me, I figured out that with some effort I could learn to be more charming and outgoing, -even with people I didn't know. It's gotten much easier and I'm much more confident, but I'm still envious of the people for whom it seems to be effortless and who apparently thrive on those same social interactions that I find challenging.

Re:Ask Putin

[king neckbeard]

The appropriate way of dealing with homosexuals is to let them be themselves and to treat them equally. If your suggestion to homosexuals over the difficulties they have in society is to act like a heterosexual, then you are (correctly) seen as a bigoted asshole for doing so. However, the manner in which autism is often dealt with is to train them to resemble neurotypicals to the extent that they are not ostracized as much. What it looks like this AC is suggesting is that society actually allow autistic people to be autistic people instead of trying to shoehorn them into being like neurotypicals.

In my experience, no ...

[Fished]

I have twins with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (it's hard to narrow it down because it doesn't really fit any of the DSM4 categories.) I've not found that /formal/ social skills work is very helpful. What seems to work better is finding situations where they can have positive social engagement with people who "get it". As you observed, I've found that the particular training is much less relevant than whether the person "gets" people on the spectrum. A lot of people just don't understand how kids on the spectrum think, and they never will.

For us, our church was a great resource for an understanding, friendly group of people who knew us well enough to know that the twins needed special gentleness in social situations. But I don't think that would be true of every church.