I am so excited!!! Last week, after V was done with his Occupational Therapist (OT), a little girl was coming next. She is also 5 and highly likely on the spectrum. I thought it could be nice if V and her could and other kids could meet and work on social skills.
I started thinking about all week (where, how many kids, activities, parents as coaches, maybe a therapist,etc) and planned on talking with the Occupational Therapist (OT) about it. In the mean time I had a conversation with V's daycare director who also has a special need kiddo. I mentioned my idea and she was quite interested as her son "wants to play with others but doesn't know how to". Her son his 6, Partner's age.
I also thought of maybe having siblings there to kind of normalize the group and have some role models (Partner's tolerance level is pretty high).
Then, during V's playtherapy yesterday I had planned on talking about it at the end of the session. And before I did, the therapy looks at me and tells me that V would really benificaite from a socials skills group! So I tell her about my ideas and she just got so excited over it!
It was so great and she said she would be there for the group and was going to brain storm and that will talk more about it next week.
I asked about how it would work with her fees and all on her own she said it would depend if the other parents had insurance or not, but we would make it work and we should not worry about it. WOW! She really impressed me.
I'll ask the Occupational Therapist (OT) tomorrow if she would like to be part of this project.
Wouldn't it be great to have a clinical social worker AND an Occupational Therapist (OT)?
What are you guy's experience with social groups? Specifically with young children? What was the most helpful?
At this point, it could take any shape or form we want as we are building it from the ground up.
It makes me so happy to do that for V and other kids in need of such a group in our little community. V's had a lot of disappointment with friends (losing them mainly after 1 or 2 days) and being part of a social group at such a young age can only be good.
I started thinking about all week (where, how many kids, activities, parents as coaches, maybe a therapist,etc) and planned on talking with the Occupational Therapist (OT) about it. In the mean time I had a conversation with V's daycare director who also has a special need kiddo. I mentioned my idea and she was quite interested as her son "wants to play with others but doesn't know how to". Her son his 6, Partner's age.
I also thought of maybe having siblings there to kind of normalize the group and have some role models (Partner's tolerance level is pretty high).
Then, during V's playtherapy yesterday I had planned on talking about it at the end of the session. And before I did, the therapy looks at me and tells me that V would really benificaite from a socials skills group! So I tell her about my ideas and she just got so excited over it!
It was so great and she said she would be there for the group and was going to brain storm and that will talk more about it next week.
I asked about how it would work with her fees and all on her own she said it would depend if the other parents had insurance or not, but we would make it work and we should not worry about it. WOW! She really impressed me.
I'll ask the Occupational Therapist (OT) tomorrow if she would like to be part of this project.
Wouldn't it be great to have a clinical social worker AND an Occupational Therapist (OT)?
What are you guy's experience with social groups? Specifically with young children? What was the most helpful?
At this point, it could take any shape or form we want as we are building it from the ground up.
It makes me so happy to do that for V and other kids in need of such a group in our little community. V's had a lot of disappointment with friends (losing them mainly after 1 or 2 days) and being part of a social group at such a young age can only be good.