The social skills curriculum at The Lighthouse Project is designed around 1x 60mins / week program. Interventions are conducted partly in an open space sensory gym while the children work on sensory equipment and during table top activities imitating a school setting. Children modify their behavior by learning about Character Building, Friendship Skills, Self Control, Bully Free Kids, Fitting In, Standing Up for Themselves, Understanding the Use of Technology as a Tool, Avoiding Risky Behaviors, and Believing in Themselves.
Although each group has a particular focus, it is the nature of occupational therapy and occupational performance to infuse social skills throughout each group. Thus the emphasis and goals will be based on the main topic, but other components, such as sensory integration, frustration tolerance, and "engine" regulation, will be prevalent throughout each group. A short briefing after each session will be conducted by the therapist to help parents work on the behavior at home.
Interventions are designed and customized based on the age and individual needs of the children in the group. The Lighthouse Project is very well known for its specialty Social Groups for Girls (ages 8-11) and Girls in their early teens. Other groups include preK, co-eds, Boys group (ages 9-10) and our Teen social group (ages 12-16 Co-ed). These are small groups not exceeding 6 children with 2 staff.
Students work to develop skills to support capable, moral teens and adults. Activities associated with this program are designed to build "character muscles" to help make life better for themselves and those around them. Skills center around friendship, kindness, cooperation, caring, and sharing.
What are the rules of being a good friend? For most of us, the rules include being able to cooperate and play fairly. This group therefore concentrates on skills related to proximity (staying in or appropriately defending our personal space), developing skills for thinking of others when having a conversation and playing, and using good coping skills when challenged by social situations.
Develop good manners, learn rules of proper behavior (and not grossing people out) to learn socially acceptable behaviors at home, school and in the world. Includes safe use of knife and fork, light meal preparation.
Being "cool" is an abstract concept with real, identifiable invisible rules and a critical element for social success. Being cool includes understanding the nonverbal rules of tone of voice, (clothes, hair, grooming), proximity (joining groups successfully) and having integrity (being organized, keeping your word, knowing yourself).
Learning skills of friendship and social performance is important but without the foundational ability to tolerate frustration, to control your emotions or to deal with competition (being a good winner and loser), there is little access to learned behavior.
Okay, so you have developed frustration tolerance, you know how to stay in your space, you got your school work done because now your handwriting is fast but how do you join a group at recess? Invite a friend over to play something without an electrical cord?
Being safe in one's environment requires an eye towards understanding and using the nonverbal cues in the environment such as home safety (identifying fire hazards, cooking safely), community safety (anticipating consequences when entering social events, novel neighborhoods, new friends' homes) and environments safety (use of fire extinguisher, earthquake prep, safety in intimacy).
Surfing the internet safely. Understanding the consequences of exploring restricted sites. Learning about confidentiality, learning about the risks of abusing the system. Recognizing the dangers of communicating with strangers on the web and learning about the dangers of posting personal information.
Bullies -whether you are one or are the target of one, bullies are a pain. Students will learn assertiveness skills, ways to anticipate and stay free of bullies, how to identify and report bullying behaviors, frequency of bullying assessment, socially appropriate strategies for dealing with bullies and tips for friendship (bully prevention).
Learning to use your hands for purposeful tasks is an essential skill for all occupational endeavors, school, home and social. Children with fine motor difficulties have difficulty with dressing, eating, using scissors, handwriting, playing games and frequently use avoidance strategies as compensation, thus moving farther and farther behind in their skills. This class combines social challenge while supporting development of hand skills.
The role, or occupation of the student requires a number of skills such as the ability to tolerate waiting, share supplies, take turns, listen, attend, and the feeling of resiliency (I am able!). This group is often done as a table- top activity with a specific topic as the task.
What does it take to plan: a birthday, a holiday event, a pajama party, a sleepover, and outing, a picnic? How do you plan a vacation with your family? This class will show you how to be prepared for activities so that there are no last minute surprises! This session also addresses confidence building, remembering details, preparing for the worst, and back up plans.
These will be practiced over several sessions. These session will prepare students to be ready for school including, organizing school schedule, cleaning and sorting papers in backpacks, learning to use school calendar, getting ready for test or projects, and talking about anxiety before test taking. It also helps with organizing the study environment (room, desk or classroom desk). Removing Clutter for increased focus.
The parents and children may bring a special concern or incident that happened at the school or home regarding social issues. This team will work with the student and parent during special sessions to address these concerns.