Social Detective Success

The Social Detective Success program will be a 12 week social skills group program for neurodiverse children/teenagers, aged 8-14 years old. Group sessions will be conducted in a face-to-face format where peers will learn concepts and apply them. The facilitators will use positive behaviour support (PBS) principles and positive psychology to provide participants with guidance in order to increase their skillset and success with generalization.

We will offer specialized guidance and support to children/teenagers with ASD, ADHD or other social difficulties who struggle socially. We aim to enhance students' social skills for success at school and in the community.

The program will include:

• 2-hour session on a weekly basis for 12 weeks (with a possible break in the middle)
• 3 x 2-hour parent education sessions, run at 3 points in the program (beginning, middle and end of program)

Aim of the parent sessions:

• Educate parents on the difficulties their child may experience as a result of their neurodiversity
• Learn strategies on how they can generalize the tools their child is learning in the social group in the home, school and community
• Facilitate connection between parents who experience similar challenges 
• Provide a non-judgmental space where parents are comfortable to share struggles, ideas and resources.

The social skills group will cater for up to 7 participants.

• Our program will be based on the ‘Social Detective Program’ (Palmer, K.Z., Winner, M.G., &Crooke, P. 2022) as well as other evidence based practices from the current field of social skills research.
• The 12-week program will focus on developing practical skills including:
  • Paying attention to the communication partner
  • Understanding of social cues
  • Understanding how to interpret and respond to various body language, facial expression and tone of voice
  • Awareness and monitoring of their own body language, facial expression and tone of voice
  • Development of conversational skills (asking questions, staying on topic, 'sharing' the conversation so it's not one-sided, back-and-forth conversation)
  • How to respond when people show they aren't interested
  • How to disagree respectfully
  • Development of perspective taking skills
• The group will be developed and led by a local Board Certified Behaviour Analyst and a Psychologist, with the assistance of a behavioural aide (depending on number of attendees and participant needs)
  

• This program will assist neurodiverse children/teenagers to develop social skills which will support and assist them to build and maintain positive relationships at school and community.
• The inclusion of parent sessions will also assist the parents to grow in understanding of their child’s difficulties and provide them with the tools they require to reduce these difficulties over time.
• In our work as behaviour therapists already in the Bow Valley, we have noted that there is a significant need for a social skills program. In our communications with other therapists and case managers in the Bow Valley, many report families seeking a social skills group for their child/teenager but this not being available.
  • So far, given this feedback, we anticipate 5-7 children to already be interested.
  • To confirm interest, we will complete a survey with our contacts to confirm the level of interest. We anticipate this program to be a ‘pilot program’ with the potential for expansion in the future. For example, we would like to offer teen social connection groups for neurodiverse teens where there can be a focus on learning about developing friendships, conflict resolution, how to solve complex social issues and understanding relationships.