Social Skills CEU Courses for OTs

This course will emphasize the critical role of emotional regulation in facilitating social and communicative competence in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Typical developmental sequences in emotional regulation will be reviewed along with the core developmental challenges in emotional regulation that are common in children with ASD. Practical supports to prevent behaviors that interfere with communication and social engagement during transitions, task engagement and emotional expression will then be highlighted.

Social Skills programs are increasingly becoming a widely used component of intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) within school and clinical settings. This course is intended to highlight the importance and relevance of applying behaviorally-based techniques and goals within the context of a group-based social skills intervention program for students with ASD.

Social-emotional development will be described with bases in research and models of emotional intelligence. Common causes for social-emotional deficits are introduced and brain-behavior relations defined. The Social Emotional Evaluation (SEE) will be reviewed for content and statistical features, case studies will be presented, and principles and methods for intervention will be discussed.

This session will help participants to identify and treat deficits related to the domains of social-interaction, social-communication, and social-emotional regulation thereby allowing for more appropriate service delivery to this challenging population.

***THIS COURSE HAS MANY VIDEOS CLIPS. PLEASE BE SURE TO BE USING A HIGH SPEED CONNECTION AND THAT ALL OF YOUR OTHER WEB BASED APPS AND WINDOWS ARE CLOSED. THANKS**

Theory of mind (ToM) deficits occur not only in children with autism spectrum disorders, but also in many children who have a variety of language impairments. This presentation will describe the development of ToM, types of ToM, and strategies for assessing ToM. The role of ToM in social and academic skills will be explained and suggestions will be given for promoting the types of ToM that underlie social and academic skills.

With the prevalence of autism on the rise, it is crucial that families and professionals understand one of the key aspects of this complex disorder. Children with autism have a difficult time understanding social rules and expectations due to their limited perspective taking abilities, the changing nature of social situations, and the complexities of pragmatic interactions. Professionals and families need to be aware of their role in providing intervention support for social skills and a clear understanding of current strategies is imperative.