Small Group &
Social Skills
Making friends & building your village
Social and emotional skill development can be incredibly frustrating and overwhelming to address. Our ABA small-group programs are designed to provide learning opportunities for these skills in a fun format with peers of similar ages, interests, and abilities. These programs consist of weekly group ABA therapy sessions with programs to track progress over time. Assessments may be suggested to assist in the identification of deficits and the creation of program goals. In our groups we emphasize kindness - both to ourselves and to others, and practice using kind words and kind hands. Each week, groups practice these predetermined skills through activities such as games, crafts, experiments, watching and discussing a movie, and more!
Scroll down to view the group learning & social skills options below.
Building your village.
School Readiness & Social Skills
Our School Readiness program (successfully running since the start of the 2020/2021 school year!) is an active group for early learners with a focus on 1:1 ABA programs/individual learning, as well as group learning skills such as sharing, social play skills, classroom routines, group activities, and circle time/story time.
School Readiness (Morning, 9am-12pm): Throughout the morning, children work directly 1:1 with their therapist on their current targets as well as attend interspersed 'circle times’, group activities at the big table, and opportunities to practice turn taking/sharing and other peer interactions.
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School Readiness Social Skills (Afternoon, 1pm-4pm): During the afternoon, children focus on play and social skills, such as sharing & turn-taking, group crafts & activities, games, and circle/story time.
Currently offered:
Wednesday and Friday at our Whitby Centre
Social Skills (General/After School)
During the school day, kids get to hang out with their classmates during recess and lunch break. For students who struggle with social skills, these interactions may be challenging and confusing. Our after school social skills groups attempt to bridge this gap by giving kids the opportunity to connect with like-minded peers in a smaller groups setting. Peer groups are created with children who have similar interests and skill-levels, while practicing individualized skills related to social skills (e.g., conversations), play skills (e.g., winning and losing games, turn taking), and group learning skills (e.g., following group instructions, following peer instructions, etc.).
Program targets are selected based on family goals, observed areas of need, or based on assessments. Some skills being worked on include appropriate winning and losing, maintaining a conversation, cooperation with peers, and following group instructions.
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Currently being offered on Tuesday & Thursday from 4-6 pm, at our Whitby centre.
Social Skills - School Breaks!
Initially developed as a ‘Summer Camp’ program, our ‘School Break’ groups occur when public schools are on holiday (e.g., March break, Winter break, PA days, Summer, etc.). This program focuses on building social skills while engaging in fun group activities and games, as well as giving kids the opportunity to connect with their friends during their time off from school.
Ratios for this program are determined based on clinical need and the support the child may require participating in the activities.
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Contact us to learn more!
Vocational Skills & Community Social Skills
Built for our high school clients, and those who are preparing to enter the post-school world - whether that is through volunteer work, coop placement, or preparing for graduation and finding a job. This group focuses on advanced social skills, high school success, and early vocational skills related to co-op placement and entering the workforce. Learning opportunities and program goals are focused on skills related to communication (e.g., writing/composing an email, communicating with people in public), high school success (e.g., following written instructions, transcribing notes, etc.), community navigation (e.g., walking and busing in the community, learning how to navigate with Google Maps), and personal responsibility (e.g., filling out personal forms, advocating for accommodations, etc.).
Currently being offered on Tuesday & Thursday from 4-6 pm
Community Safety & Engagement
Community Safety & Engagement 1 - Cooking and Shopping:
During this program, our learners work on skills related to money sense, budgeting, creating a shopping/grocery list together, shopping and paying for the items, following a recipe, and cooking/baking. We also work on community safety skills when we walk to and from the store, including responding to safety cues (e.g., stop, wait, etc.) and crossing the street safely.
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Community Safety & Engagement 2- Commuting & Shopping safety: this program works to build skills that will help our learners navigate our community, both via walking and using the Durham Region Transit system (i.e., buses). This program will focus on walking safely within the community - including crossing busy streets, walking safely in various locations and stores (e.g., grocery store, dollar store, the mall, etc.), even in the face of temptation (e.g., a toy or preferred snack). We will be practicing being flexible, tolerating being told "no" or "not available" at a store, all while having fun out in the community! For some of our learners, this program may also include learning to read the bus schedules and telling time, and learning to ride the bus more independently.
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Please note: these programs run periodically on the weekend (i.e., Saturday and/or Sunday) in 4-6 week blocks, and do not run at the same time.
