social skills/confidence coaching for teenagers?

[Onwardseveronwards]

Does anyone know of anyone/organisation in the South East/London who does social skills and confidence boosting for teenagers?

Not so much therapy/CBT type things or the 'believe you are wonderful' sort of approach - but more practical eg friendly body language, eye contact, friendship making conversation skills sort of thing. (Face to face and one to one rather than Skype.) Have been looking on the internet but surprisingly difficult to find!

Bumping for the slightly later getter uppers!

If it's appropriate a drama/theatre group would definitely help. Chicken Shed is in Enfield but I believe they have satellite clubs.

Thanks so much tarum, yes drama is great - and Chickenshed is fantastic!

At the moment looking for something more one-to-one - but you have given me the idea that perhaps a drama tutor would be able to do the body language thing as a sideline! Not sure a drama teacher would be so good at the 'friendship/bonding conversation skills' so much though - I suppose that is a slightly separate thing, though connected.

I know you're looking for a face to face group but in addition to this you should try the Everyday Speech app- it has lots of social skills videos made by speech and language therapists. They teach social skills like eye contact, body language, personal space how to start conversation and how to keep in going etc. They are well made videos and many of them are aimed at teenagers.

Thanks imaginosity, I've just had a look at that on youtube and some of those clips are amazing! Really impressive. The ones I've found have been quite targeted to younger children though - in a way I suppose an older teen might be better off with apps directed at adults so they won't feel 'talked down to'?

Yes you're right am interested in one to one face to face - I suppose that's probably particularly important for body language and so on?

There are other videos on the app itself directed at older children and teenagers. You can trail it for a month I think to see what they have. Its not cheap though - about $10 a month - but well worth it for my son who has aspergers.

Ah, thanks imag, that is really useful info! Might trial it 'in advance' if you see what I mean. Have you ever looked for one on one face to face people for your ds as well, or do you stick with the app?

Try lamda tutors- should help one to one.

I only found one group that did face to face but it was very basic. My DS is quite capable in many ways so it didn't suit him. We are in a small area so there isn't too much choice around here.

Luckily now he is being helped with social skills in school. Its better for us as its free and doesn't take up any of our free time. Also, there are lots of children in school with very good social skills who are good role models for DS - especially the easy-going, kind ones.

We often watch videos on the app before school and he has put some of the skills to use. He always tells me when I've made an unconnected comment in a conversation as he learned about these on the app!

I have the app on my phone and sometimes in the car, on the way to meet people, DS watches a few relevant videos so the social skills he needs are fresh in his mind.

I had a look on the app a little while ago and there is a good amount of videos aimed at teenagers.

Thanks Imag and sandwich. Yes I think a drama/lamda tutor could be really helpful with body language and presentation skills generally, if they were interested in teaching just that rather than exams.

It's very interesting seeing something like the app showing how 'rules based' a lot of our interactions are - connected comments, eye contact, taking turns in conversation. But I suppose a face to face teacher helps actually role play and put it into practice!

Don't under estimate the positive effect you have in modelling social skills, it can make a massive difference.

thanks mumtea yes I think that is true - though I think that some skills are also 'innate' in that some people more instinctively know how to 'present ' themselves, take turns in conversation etc, than others. But yes definitely good to model such things as well!

Bumping for the Monday evening crowd!