Socialization with Children with Special Needs in Schools and Therapeutic Groups

Socialization Emerging through the Functional Emotional Developmental

Milestones

Children with Developmental Delays Can Develop:

Empathy

The ability to read emotional signals

The ability to negotiate with peers

Typical Social Development

• The emotion selects the behavior

Build foundations from the bottom up.Create heightened states of emotionality

to help the child use and connect emotions to his behavior.

Example: A big smile gives a word like “hi” real warmth and meaning.

Principals of The Greenspan Floortime Approach

The same 3 principals apply when helping children socialize with peers that apply when encouraging children to relate and communicate adults. However, they will look different in application.

Follow the child’s lead

Challenge up the developmental ladder

Expand the challenge

Traditional Social Skills and Goals

Sharing

Taking Turns

Compromising

Theory of Mind (putting yourself in the other persons shoes)

Developmental Social Goals are the Stages of Development used in a social setting

Regulation and Shared attention

Engagement

Basic communication

Continuous flow and Shared problem-solving

Using ideas creatively and spontaneously

Using ideas logically

Higher levels of thinking

Organization and Techniques to Encourage Socialization

Social Interaction Fundamentals

Start with smaller groups (dyads) and move slowly to larger ones.

Create multiple environments, sensory and symbolic, to encourage different types of interactions.

Remember that child/adult play is different from child/child play.Other children don’t always entice, initiate,

or counter-regulate

Group Organization

Make sure all children in the group are solid at the 4th milestone with adults: Shared social problem solving and Continuous flow.

Have children with complimentary sensory system.An underreactive child and sensory seeking

child.

You can include children with similar and/or different developmental profiles. Optimally the children should balance each

other out with their profiles.

Techniques to Encourage Socialization

Allow children to create their own interactions or games, and follow their lead.

Facilitate maintained regulation, attention, and engagement.

Encourage sensory based games and semi-structured activities.Often we need to semi-structure or

introduce a sensory based activity to facilitate interest and attention

Remember the goal is to encourage the interaction between the children, don’t do all the work for them. Encourage them to seek each others help or participation.

Techniques to Encourage Socialization

Use your affect to entice the children toward a common activity or each other.

Use your body to help a child carry out their social goali.e. playful obstruction

Ask questions to help the children maintain focus on each other and the activity.

ex. When a child wants to play a game, ask the child, “What do your friends think?” or “What do your friends want to play?”

Techniques to Encourage Socialization

Create physical problems that need to be solved with the help of many childrenEncourage a child to get a friend to help

them.

Ask questions that encourage the children to agree on different decisions before they get a need met.What should we do? Swing or bounce?

Techniques to Encourage Socialization

If children are having trouble initiating their own games or activities, or are getting disregulated, useSemi-structured gamesArt projectsMusicInitially structure the expectations, and allow

them to expand creatively.

Facilitators must always…

Encourage interaction/communication between the children.Redirect children toward one another vs.

doing the floortime yourself

Counter-regulateKeep environment under control

PatienceLet the interaction develop naturally

The Floortime Center

Contact Information:

4827 Rugby Ave.

Bethesda, MD 20814

Email: info@dirss.com

Website: www.thefloortimecenter.com

Phone: (301) 657-1130