Help for children with social skills in Perth

Social Skills are crucial for success and well-being in various aspects of life including: personal relationships, academic pursuits, professional endeavours and overall mental health. 

Social skills are important for the following reasons:

1. Effective Communication: Social skills enable individuals to communicate effectively with others, expressing thoughts, feelings and ideas clearly and appropriately. 

2. Building Relationships: Developing strong social skills allows individuals to build and maintain relationships with family and friends. 

3. Conflict Resolution: People with strong social skills  are better equipped to navigate conflict.

4. Teamwork and Collaboration: Social skills are needed when playing games, school projects and team sports. Social skills like co-operation, compromise and leadership facilitate effective teamwork. 5. Emotional Intelligence: Social skills are closely linked to emotional intelligence, which involves understanding and managing one’s emotions and the emotions of others.

What does a speech pathologist do?

1. Assessment: Speech Pathologists conduct assessments by observing the client in natural social interactions.  A SP will analyse language abilities and assess pragmatic language skills (i.e. one’s ability to use language in social contexts). 
2. Identify Areas of Need: Based on the assessment an SP can identify specific areas where an individual may struggle with social skills. This could include challenges with initiating conversations, interpreting non-verbal cues, understanding social norms, or using appropriate language in different social contexts. 
3. Developing Individualized Treatment Plans / Organising Group sessions: An SP will be able to offer 1:1 tailored sessions or group sessions. A 1:1 session allows for the SP and client to pin point exactly the area of need and work specifically on this. A group session allows the client to put the theory into practice in a natural setting. Group activities promote social interaction, collaboration and peer feedback allowing individuals to learn from each other. The SP will then provide feedback form observations. 
4. Social Skills Training: This may involve role playing social scenarios, teaching conversational skills (e.g. turn taking, topic maintenance), practicing nonverbal communication (e.g. body language, facial expressions) and learning social problem solving strategies.