Social Skills Group

As Hal gets older, he feels he knows all about social skills and no longer needs to participate in social skills groups. Kiki has had mixed success over the years finding groups that are a good fit for Hal. The district feels an after school program led by the social worker with a mishmosh of students with different issues would be perfectly adequate. Hal very much needs to be with similarily developing peers and typical peers -- if tolerant typical peers can be found at the middle school level. Kiki thinks not. The group that Hal is both most comfortable in and seems to gain the most from is run by the young man who studied under Michelle Garcia Winner, superstar of the social thinking world. Unfortunately, the district feels that this group is not a good fit as it is "not local/community based" when in reality, Hal interacts with folks from around the globe.

Kiki went to observe the local/community based social skills group that Hal is participating in over the summer. It was fraught with outbursts, one youth roughing up another, the girl in the group not getting a turn to talk, and other less than ideal interactions. This observed during a 30 minute period! When Kiki talked to the program director, she acknowledged that Hal had had some difficulty in the group (he had at this point been 3x). Kiki could only imagine what really went on that Hal did not want to share.

For the time being, Kiki's approach will be to ask the district to explain why they refused the action Hal's parents proposed including identifying what evaluations, reports or records support the refusal. Kiki will also reference the two evaulations provided in June that identify the need for Hal to participate in social skills groups, the need for high quality teachers, and request the Winner-trained group.