Parents, What Do You Want In A Social Skills Art Therapy Group?
Parents, What Do You Want In A Social Skills Art Therapy Group?
I'm an art therapist and ABA therapist and am organizing a social skills and art therapy group for kids on the spectrum here in New Orleans. The goal is to foster self-expression, self-regulation and social skills through group creative projects. As parents, what would you want to see in such a group? What qualities do you look for when signing up your child for activities and therapies?
When I registered my son for a social skills group over the summer, I made sure that it was a good facilitator-to-child ratio. The group he attended was very small (5 kids to 3 facilitators). One thing to consider is if the kids need to have prerequisite skills to attend (turn taking, attending, waiting, imitation, etc.) Also, the facilitators had the parents fill out profiles on their children. This enabled us to list our child's method of communication, preferred activities, sensory issues, motivations, challenges, etc. As each child is different, I thought that this was a good way for the organizers to get to know our children.
