Preschool | School Age Children | School Holidays | How to Begin

Our social skills groups run throughout the school year. Each weekly session is one hour in length and has a maximum of six participants facilitated by two therapists.

The groups are designed to help children with social issues related to diagnosis such as, but not limited to, ADD/ADHD, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Asperger’s Syndrome, Non-Verbal Learning Disability and Sensory Integration Disorder, or for children experiencing emotional stressors that affect their social functioning.

In our efforts to expand this understanding to everyone in the child’s world we offer parent coaching, along with support and psycho-educational assistance for siblings. As practitioners who see these children in a small, safe environment with their peers, we often have important information that we are pleased to share with other professionals and school personnel.

Communication with parents is a key component of our groups. We offer a parent support group to give feedback, answer questions, and link parents with each other. In addition we set up a 45 minute parent conference during the year to discuss progress, get feedback from parents, and solidify goals for each child.
 

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The most important part of the preschool years is learning how to get along with others. Three-to-five year olds are constantly learning lessons about what is acceptable behaviour among peers. At KIDS LINK we help the children understand the positive and negative consequences of different actions or behaviours. Among other things the therapist provides feedback, interprets facial cues and body language, corrects misinterpretations and uses positive reinforcement for all socially appropriate behaviours. Using play and simple art activities, the focus of the group is to build communication, empathy, relationships, cooperation and respect for others.

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These groups are generally broken into two segments. During the first half a structured activity is offered to address self-expression and group cooperation. The second half of the group is designed as “free play” time. This looser structure gives the therapists the opportunity to observe the children initiate play, resolve conflict, and transition away from play. During this time the therapists give feedback and step in when conflict occurs or if a child is isolating. When children engage in appropriate social behaviours, specific positive feedback and encouragement serve as reinforcement. The groups for elementary school children are facilitated in a more structured manner; as they become middle and high-schoolers we help the group members take on more responsibility for the time they spend together. By having two therapists in each group, we are able to model social behaviour. The co-leaders are continually interpreting the social environment both verbally and visually for the children. This in turn helps the children have a clear and more accurate picture of their social actions and the responses to others.

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The School Holiday program combines elements of our social skills groups with a summer camp experience. We offer a 3:1 child/therapist ratio and small group size. Our program is more structured than typical summer camp programs. Every aspect of the child's day is social-skills oriented. All of our activities are geared toward building self-esteem, improving social interaction (both verbal and non-verbal), cooperative play and team building, fostering comfort around competition (both winning and losing), conflict resolution, creative expression and self-awareness.

Our School Holidays program will begin in 2005.

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We conduct a 45 minute interview to give your family an opportunity to meet us, see the physical space where the groups take place and address any concerns you have. It also gives us the opportunity to assess your child’s needs and determine which of our groups best “fit”. We can be reached by calling us at:-0414452177