HFA & Social Skills Tutor

[TessTheSeasonToBeJolly]

Just read the (v.fab) Jodi Picoult book "House Rules". The main character is Aspie and has a "Social Skills Tutor".

So, was wondering if anybody has heard of these in RL? Do they exist in the UK?

Hi

I would imagine that they do exist, but possibly not under that name.

There are these special units for children with ASD to go to for a few years(as you probably know) and I would imagine that there would be lots of social skills tutors, or the closest thing.

Believe me, there are so many more parents who come on here who will know all the facts. I just wanted to say that yes, I would have thought they did exist in RL. Put it this way, i'd be disappointed if they didn't.

Probably only in the States! ABA tutors may run social skills groups. I know a social worker who runs a social skills group - her advice seems to be along the lines of look in the general direction of a persons face when you talk to them - bless her she is a dear friend of mine but clearly only been on the one day course. Some social care inclusion officers get psychologists in sometimes to do social skills / independence skills type work. In practice I think these ideas come from parents and they then have to find grants or funding and people to run them. But children who go to ASD specific respite probably have carers who include some of this in what they do. But in terms of someone actually trained it would probably be only ABA. Our ABA consultant said it would take him 3 weeks to teach a TA how to teach DS social skills. In the UK most autism teachers have probably only done a few workshops on the subject. I can't think of anyone outside ABA who would have 3 weeks training.

ABA is not really an option here as HFA doesn't get the LA or LEA interested enough.

Was thinking / wondering more along the lines of direct payments for a peer / young adult to mentor and support 1-2-1 (possibly a Uni student studying in this field).

Has anybody looked into this before?

Ha! Playdates??? Don't exist for my DS.

Direct payments are AFIK supposed to fund services and support that you otherwise wouldn't be able to access.

DS is at an age where no clubs / peer social groups exist within our LA. ABA is still some mystical code for a semi-disbanded 1970's swedish pop group and we (older parents) are not exactly ideally placed to teach an HFA / Aspie teen how to be trendy and get on with his peers.

So the Jodie Picoult book did give us an idea but wondering how or if this would be possible in the UK?

Does your local NAS group run a youth club?

Not asked about direct payments yet... Just more of a pondering the possibility really.

ABA would most likely have been very useful in the early days but wasn't readily available then (still isn't really in my LA but not impossible). Am now thinking along the lines of HFA/Aspergers teens who are mostly mainstreamed and find a definite lack of social / youth groups accessible to them.

Local NAS runs a parent support group only but still is miles away from where we are. No other groups exist for my DS at the moment.