Social Communication Groups
Our social communication groups are available from preschool through high school and follow a social language and perspective-taking curriculum that gives children the skills to connect with others and build relationships through flexible thinking. Some children miss social cues and misperceive body language. We offer coaching and direct experience that leads to cognitive thinking, social, and emotional development.
About Our Social Groups
At SMC we are experts in autism learning style and instruction. Our programming is not limited to autism learners we have a diversified client base of varying learning styles. We are truly a team committed to instructing extraordinary minds to find their voice, purpose and place in the world.
At SMC, we teach social competence resulting in social skills. Social competence refers to social, emotional, and cognitive skills and behaviors that children need for successful social adaptation.
Our focus at SMC is to focus on thinking not behavior our thinking drives our behaviors. To adapt our behaviors to the social situation we must have social, emotional, and organized thinking.
Who can benefit?
Everyone!
Social Groups can benefit any child struggling with building friendships, communication, and/or peer collaboration. Our social group curriculum is invaluable in addressing friendship challenges. We have different groups for varying skill sets.
Our Strategy
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SOCIAL COMPETENCY STRATEGY:
• We build & expand (executive function skills) self-awareness, cognitive flexibility, and self-regulation skills to improve learning
• We build & expand social perspective (thinking about others and what they are thinking)
• We build & expand social language (socially appropriate words, posture & body language)
• We believe that social language, social perspective, and self-regulation (cognitive control) are the three main skill groups for acquiring social competency.
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GROUP FORMAT:
Social groups consist of 2 to 5 children led by a certified therapist.
• Group ages range from 5 to 18. We have preschool and high school groups
• 1-hour session once a week, Monday thru Thursday
• The cost is $88.00 a session
• Individualized goal plan
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WEEKLY TOPICS:
• Social lessons
• Collaborative experience
• Relationship development
• Interaction skills
• Cognitive flexibility
• Self-awareness
• Self-regulation skills (promote self-awareness for self-control)
• Language for emotions for emotional understanding
• Emotional regulation
• Conversational skills
• Friendship development & interaction skills
• Problem-solving
• How understanding other people’s perspectives is the group focusExposing the child to social interaction, engaging them in a shared experience, and coaching him/her as to what is regarded as appropriate and inappropriate behavior equips the child for social success.
Our Process
An individual intervention plan, including assessment and goals, is developed for each child. Progress reporting every 16th session. Intervention is structured and focused. An intake social communication interview identifies the child’s area of weakness to be targeted in a group or individual intervention. Schedule an intake interview today!
Placement Process
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1. Complete the Social Group Intake Form
Thank you for your patience in filling out this very important social assessment form. It's essential to effectively start the evaluation and placement of your child in the perfect environment tailored to their unique and specific needs. Please contact us with any questions as you fill out the form.
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2. Schedule Social Communication Intake.
INTAKE INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION:
The intake aims to find a group match for your child based on his/her skill set and formulate group intervention goals. The cost of the interview is $350. In 2-4 business days after the interview, you will receive a report detailing results, goals, and group placement. Please note that Dr. Savinelli will not discuss the intake results with your child present. Dr. Savinelli will contact you to review the recommendations and answer any questions you may have about our programming. The process generally occurs within two business days.
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3. The Interview
INTAKE INTERVIEW DETAILS:
Using social vignettes, the clinician establishes a social skills profile for each child. A social vignette may include a ‘question & answer’ where each person asks and responds to various familiar questions (e.g., what are the good things at school, do you have a sibling or pets).
Through the question & answer process, the clinician begins to develop a sense of the child’s ability to take the perspective of the communication partner by showing interest in them through a Q&A task.
Another vignette may include presenting the child with social scenarios and asking the child to interpret what he/she sees in the picture. This task requires the child to identify the big picture or the gist of the picture by using social cues such as body language, including facial expressions, to come to a social conclusion.
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4. Goal plan design.
From the information obtained during the Intake Interview, a goal plan for the child is developed.
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5. Assignment to group matching current skill set or to individual intervention.
Individual intervention can include individual social competency instruction, language therapy, coaching and/or occupational therapy.
Dr. Savinelli will recommend a social group that matches the skill set of your child including the day and time that this social communication group meets. Our social communication groups meet once a week (1x week) for 1 hour.
• Pricing is $88.00 a session averaging on a 4-week month basis to $352.00.
• We recommend a minimum of 16 weeks to cover a considerable part of the curriculum.
SMC does not process insurance claims:
We will provide you with invoicing that you can submit to your insurance company for reimbursement. Your reimbursement will be based on your coverage for an out of network provider. Social communication groups are categorized group speech therapy.