Groups for Autistic Children Help Remove Barriers

 

The development of social skills is a deficit common among children and teens with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, this challenge doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t wish to socialize with their peers and other people around them. The goal of autism social groups is to provide autistic individuals with the tools and support they need to develop the ability to interact with others in a meaningful way. 

Common Social Challenges

Social skills are essential for everyone, including people with autism. Failure to develop these skills early can lead to consequences that range from poor academic performance, peer rejection and depression. 

Those that facilitate social skills groups can attest that children and teens with ASD benefit from peer-to-peer groups. Some common social challenges that autistic youngsters face: 

• Initiating conversations and taking turns
• Processing others’ thoughts, emotions, facial expressions, and body language
• Addressing disagreements
• Recognizing and understanding unwritten rules of various social situations
• Sharing interests with other people within their age range

Ways To Learn

Today, many social skills groups for autism exist to help children and teens with ASD acquire or hone their social skills. A typical intervention strategy begins with understanding someone’s current social functioning level and identifying which skills they lack or they have but don’t exhibit or perform well. These assessments allow facilitators to choose and implement the most suitable intervention strategies. Because social skills can’t be developed overnight, continuous evaluation, monitoring, and modifications (whenever needed) are essential. 

Here are some of the strategies used to remove social barriers among autistic children and teens: 

Peer-mediated interventions. Autism social groups provide a specially structured environment where participants can experience successful social interactions — from initiating talks to responding to conversations. Experienced and trained mentors facilitate these interventions to oversee activities appropriate for the participants' age group and level of social functioning. 

Thoughts and feelings activities. One key to successfully having social interactions is by having the ability to understand and process the other person’s thoughts and feelings. These activities are designed to enhance these very skills. Besides helping participants identify different emotions (e.g., happy, sad), mentors also teach the "why" behind them. 

Social stories. Storytelling is one of the most effective ways to impart social concepts and rules. But for it to be effective, it must be done in a way that matches the audience’s ability and comprehension level. 

Role-playing. Also referred to as behavioral rehearsal, role-playing activities provide autistic youngsters with opportunities to practice the social skills that they’ve previously learned. In this type of intervention strategy, the scripts can be pre-developed, impromptu, or a combination of both. 

Video modeling. Considered by occupational therapists in Princeton who closely with kids with ASD agree this is the most effective strategy, this involves letting the participants watch a particular behavior-demonstrating video. After it is shown, the child or teen must mimic the behavior displayed by the character in the video. 

If you’re a parent or a guardian seeking social groups for high functioning Autism, know that there are many ways you can help your autistic child learn social skills. Apart from finding trustworthy groups that offer social skills intervention programs, you should be a role model and show them how to act in social situations appropriately.

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Common Sounds Kids Struggle to Pronounce

The development of speech and language skills varies from child to child. However, there are certain age-range milestones that, when not achieved, may possibly imply future speech and speech-learning difficulties.

For instance, according to experts that offer speech therapy for toddlers, at the age of 6 to 12 months, a baby should be able to babble and repeat sounds. By age 1 to 2 years old, they may be able to say the sounds of p and b among others. By the time they're 5, their speech should generally be easy to understand though they may still struggle to pronounce "th" sounds.

In this article, we're rounding up the most common sounds kids may find hard to pronounce.

K.

Most providers offering speech therapy services in Madison NJ, would agree that many youngsters struggle with saying the k sound (as in cake). Often, what they do is replace it with a t sound (as in tate).

L and r.

Even among older children, you may encounter individuals who can't properly pronounce these sounds, especially when they're in the same sentence (as in the lion is roaring). As a substitute, they tend to use a w sound (as in the wion is wawing).

Zh.

This sound is found in many complicated words. For instance, the second g in garage and the s in decision. Even for native English speakers, this is one of the most difficult sounds to learn.

Voiced and voiceless th.

Ask any Speech and language therapist, these sounds are some of the most challenging to learn for children. The voiceless th is the sound used in words like "thumb" and "thank you"; voiced th, in words like the and with. Often, kids use f and v sounds as the respective replacements (as in fumb, fank you, va, and wiv).

Consonant blends.

It's also challenging for children to pronounce consonants used next to each other clearly. For example, instead of saying "stay" or "stop," they will say "say" or "sop."

Multisyllabic words.

In speaking to a few Speech Language Pathologists in NJ, it's common to jumble or shorten words and phrases with too many syllables. For instance, instead of saying "spaghetti," they may say paghetti or pagshetti.

Ways You Can Help

Getting help from a speech pathologist in NJ is one of the best ways to help your child who's struggling to pronounce certain sounds at their age.

Pediatric speech therapy is a specialized form of rehabilitation that helps children recover from speech disorders. Speech therapists assess and help children develop their speaking skills through unique exercises and activities designed to improve their ability to communicate. They also work with parents like you and teachers to ensure that children receive the best treatment plan.

Apart from relying on early interventions from a speech therapy clinic in New Jersey, you can be a role model on how to pronounce sounds properly. Help your kid practice reading at home and be patient about their situation. It's important not to force your child to learn hard phonics sounds. With a professional by your side, be there to guide them until they get better diligently.

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How Speech & Occupational Therapy Helps Autistic Kids

For every 35 children you meet in New Jersey, odds say that one child will have an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This is according to a 2021 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And if you’re a parent to a kid with ASD, providing them speech and pediatric occupational therapy in NJ can help make life better for them.

What is ASD

ASD is an umbrella term for lifelong developmental disabilities that affect how a person communicates and relates to others. People with ASD often have difficulty forming relationships and may experience challenges with social communication and repetitive behaviors.

What is Pediatric Speech Therapy

Speech therapy (ST) is a field that focuses on patients who have communication problems. Those who specialize in pediatric speech therapy are trained to work with children who struggle with verbal speach due to physical disabilities, neurological disorders, developmental delays, or other reasons.

From initial evaluation and creating a personalized plan to implementing that plan, the goal of a speech therapist is to improve someone’s ability to communicate — verbally, non-verbally, and in social settings. Some of the skills required to achieve this objective are:

• Strengthening the muscles used in speech

• Making clearer speech sounds

• Modulating tone

• Improving facial expression

• Responding to questions

This is particularly helpful for autistic kids as they immerse themselves in autism social groups in Morris County. Such social groups are designed to help children with ASD engage with their fellow youngsters and gain a better understanding — not just of body language but of emotions as well. It’s also an environment where they can learn how to initiate conversations and empowered to grow in these endeavors.

What is Pediatric Occupational Therapy

Occupational therapy refers to the holistic treatment that helps people with disabilities achieve their highest level of function. When you allow your autistic child to attend occupational therapy sessions, you’re allowing them to receive professional guidance on how to do daily activities, you and I may take for granted, more successfully.

Pediatric occupational therapy starts with a proper assessment of a patient’s skills. Patients with ASD, the skills they’re being evaluated for include social, cognitive, sensory, motor, and cognitive skills. A pediatric occupational therapist then crafts and rolls out an individual treatment plan. This plan may include several interventions, such as:

• Physical exercises that enhance motor development

• Learning activities that focus on sensory integration

• Strategies that help foster a patient’s emotional growth

• Cognitive behavioral approaches to correct erring behaviors while reinforcing positive ones

• Social groups participation to encourage interaction with peers

How These Therapies Can Help Autistic Kids

Occupational and pediatric speech therapy in Madison NJ plays a vital role in unlocking the full potential of an autistic child. If your little one is suffering from ASD, enrolling them in these therapy sessions can enhance their overall development.

One of the key contributory factors that make these therapies helpful is the presence of a personalized treatment plan. This plan is made according to your child’s unique needs. But while this plan may comprise various interventions — one thing is a staple: the need for social immersion. It’s an opportunity to put your kid’s skills to the test in a real-life situation while getting authentic support from fellow autistic kids and other people concerned.

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Occupational Therapy For Kids That Don't Want OT

If you are observant, some children would frequently say "no" to what their parents (or other adults in their surroundings) ask of them. Sentences like "No, I don’t want to do it" or "No, I find it too hard to do" are a staple in their conversations. In science, this condition is called Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA), and one way to help address it is through occupational therapy for kids. 

What Is Pathological Demand Avoidance

Professionals who specialize in pediatric occupational therapy in NJ often have kids with PDA as their patients. 

PDA is a profile of autism, and it’s a condition where a person has a high level of anxiety that causes them to avoid situations that they perceive as threatening, overwhelming, or frightening. 

Children express PDA through various behaviors — from shouting, crying, hiding or running away to remaining silent. In worse cases, PDA can cause them to have panic attacks, agoraphobia, social phobia, and other mental health issues. In the long run, kids who suffer from PDA are often unable to function properly at home or school. 

What Is Occupational Therapy For Children And How It Can Help

Pediatric Occupational Therapy (POT) is a field that focuses on helping children develop their physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and communication skills through a carefully planned set of exercises, activities, and techniques. 

POT is a kind of professional intervention that addresses an array of conditions, including PDA. But apart from that, it can also fix problems surrounding sensory receptions, failing to quickly learn new concepts, developmental disorders, and birth-related injuries obtained after birth or while growing up. 

An occupational therapist for kids offers lots of benefits:

They help children handle everyday routines (e.g., brushing their teeth, going to the bathroom, wearing their clothes) 

They resolve sensory perception and process-related problems

Therapists guide kids on how to communicate better and engage with other people around them 

They facilitate exercises that can stabilize children with motor skill problems

They help kids relearn previously known activities

Ways to Address PDA In Kids

Professionals offering pediatric occupational therapy follow a certain framework when resolving PDA in children. This is called PANDA, which stands for 

• Pick battles, 

• Anxiety management, 

• Negotiation and collaboration, 

• Disguise and manage demands, and 

• Adaptation. 

Occupational therapists find the most suitable "challenge" and help their patients accomplish it through activities that follow this framework. 

For instance, if a child needs sensory support, the therapist can recommend activities that will help the child exercise their senses (e.g., carrying a bag, jumping on a trampoline). If a youngster has trouble communicating their thoughts, the use of a puppet (or toy or a pet) has proven to be beneficial. Such an aide can be used to demonstrate a particular task or be used by an adult to help the child accomplish a task. 

Addressing PDA in kids also requires flexibility. Occupational therapists generally advise parents to offer a choice when asking a child to do something. For example, instead of simply asking, "Shall we brush our teeth?" You could instead say, "Would you like to brush our teeth before or after breakfast?" This way, you can engage with your kid while exploring their preferences and interests. 

When a kid completes a task, occupational therapists also recommend giving praise and rewards — and explaining to the child the benefits of accomplishing that task so that they can be motivated to do it again.

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Early Intervention Speech Therapy Helps Tremendously

For children with auditory processing disorder, early intervention can help toddlers get on the right track. Parents and other family members often work alongside speech therapy professionals to establish concrete goals for therapy. The early intervention can go a long way toward helping your toddler work through his language processing difficulties and even provide a headstart for them once they reach 1st grade.

How Early Intervention Works

Early intervention helps a child overcome communication difficulties before an official diagnosis is even made, and it also helps children who do have a processing disorder minimize its long-term effects. The child learns communication strategies that aid him in everyday life. Speech therapy for toddlers involves receiving EI services at home or in a classroom setting found at an early education program or at a daycare center.

Wherever the child is most comfortable should be where the language services should be offered and best if it takes place where the child interacts with others on a regular basis. The parents, guardians, care workers, etc., set goals and objectives through focused interactions, and these interactions should occur naturally in the child’s daily life. They often involve speech modeling and communication in a way that encourages the child to participate.

Early Intervention Techniques

It’s important to tailor the intervention to the child’s individual struggles and environment. However, there is quite a bit of flexibility in what works. For example, when you read or play with your toddler, make sure he is engaged with the book, object or toy. He will then be more likely to relate your words to the item, which fosters joint attention skills. You can also encourage sharing and good play habits with the toddler, by pairing an action with a sound and then encouraging the child to mimic that sound. This helps the child practice meaningful exchanges.

Another positive way to encourage verbal interaction is by incorporating words into your toddler’s playtime with you. For example, if he takes a broom and begins sweeping the floor, you can talk about the broom, about how clean the floor is getting, etc. The toddler doesn’t need to respond to your narrations, but he will likely process what you have to say. If your toddler shows interest in something and involves you in his play, listen to his nonverbal communication quest and repeat it back to him verbally. For example, he may pick up a ball and show it to you with enthusiasm. By verbally showing equal enthusiasm, you in effect help him translate his excitement into words.

Speech therapy for toddlers can help them overcome or minimize a communication disorder. With auditory processing disorder treatment, parents, guardians and a speech pathologist in Mercer County can work together to enhance the child’s way of life.

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Language Disorders Impact Academic Success

During your child’s formative years, the lessons learned in school will benefit your children as well as you by helping them become a strong, self-reliant person. Making the most of this time will require you to totally commit to their academic success. Unfortunately, speech and language disorders can place frequent roadblocks along the learning pathway. These problems are in no way the fault of your child, yet can end up exacting a devastating personal toll on him or her. Fortunately, you and your child are not without assistance in overcoming these challenges.

Connecting Communication Issues with Poor Scholastic Performance

Why is it that speech and language disorders can have such a dramatic impact on learning? Education is contingent upon effective communications. That includes not only the way that lessons and concepts are communicated to your child, but also how he or she is able reflect those teachings back to their teachers and peers. Depending upon the particular disorder your child struggles with, he or she may have issues with:

• *Expressing him or herself both orally and with the written word
• *Interpreting information for processing
• *Understanding non-verbal gestures and cues
• *Retaining the attention needed to complete assignments and tests

As these issues in effectively communicating begin to manifest themselves, he or she may misunderstand these struggles as being problems with his or her level of intelligence. This may cause them to become withdrawn, making it even more difficult to engage with classmates and forming those relationships that make school enjoyable.

Coordinated Care is the Key to Improvements

Such challenges are not insurmountable, however. The key is recognizing that issues exist and having your child assessed to determine the nature and extent of his or her disorder. With that information in hand, you can then coordinate with teachers, speech-language pathologists in NJ and your pediatrician to develop an action plan aimed that improving your child’s communication skills and academic performance. Integrated treatments can then be delivered in conjunction with his or her schooling so that he associates overcoming speech and language obstacles with scholastic achievements.

Tackling speech and language issues early will help guarantee your child has the best chance at academic success. Don’t think that if you can address the language processing disorder treatments during the primary school years that they cannot be overcome later on. With the help of a qualified speech therapist for teens, and a few well-chosen special education reading programs can provide the assistance that he or she needs. No matter the age at which your child begins to combat the challenges posed by their disorder, you both have access to the resources necessary to deliver personal and academic success.

1. Language processing disorder treatments
2. Speech therapist for teens in Mercer County

3. Special education reading programs

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Speech Apraxia Is Best Treated at Early Ages

There are two types of speech apraxia, acquired and developmental. Acquired speech apraxia happens regardless of a person’s age, while people have developmental speech apraxia since birth. Children with this condition are often able to understand speech far more capably than they can speak words, as speech apraxia means that there is a communication gap between the brain and speech-producing parts such as the tongue, lips or jaw. As with many conditions, earlier detection often leads to better treatment outcomes.

Success, Not Failure

The fear of failure can be a huge inhibitor, hurting children socially, emotionally and mentally. When speech apraxia treatment begins at a young age, there are fewer occurrences that set children up for failure. Instead, children work with their families and with professionals to take proactive steps toward empowerment. Successes may be in small doses at first, but at least the child better understands the situation and does experience some measure of success. Also contributing to success is the fact that treatment can prevent bad habits from making even deeper roots.

Increased Communication

Being able to communicate at any age is a good thing, and with speech therapy for apraxia, affected children are able to communicate better and earlier than they would otherwise have. For example, they (and their families) may learn sign language or use portable computers to enhance their language skills. As time goes on, children can expand their lessons on oral communication to vary pitch and loudness, for example, or to incorporate more syllables.

Family Relationships

When just one member of a family is frustrated, the frustration can have a ripple effect. With speech apraxia, children may be frustrated along with their parents. This frustration can multiply and spread to siblings. Early intervention serves to nip this frustration in the bud before it wreaks excessive damage, and it can even help families bond and increase members’ support of one another.

More Time

Most language processing disorder treatment and apraxia therapy for kids in Somerset NJ takes time. Success cannot occur overnight, and early intervention for speech disorders gives children even more time to rise to the challenges of apraxia. Intervention that is early and intensive allows children and their families to act more proactively instead of reactively.

When dealing with children, communication should always be a main concern. Treating speech apraxia at early ages gives children tools for communication, helps them realize successes and strengthens family relationships. Families can work to take control of the apraxia rather than the apraxia controlling the child.

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Kids Who Fall Behind in Reading Need a Boost

If your child doesn’t enjoy reading, boredom may not be the problem. It is not uncommon for young readers to find that their minds wander during reading due to reading comprehension problems or underdeveloped reading skills. Your child may not be able to tell you why they dislike reading, and you may mistake their frustration and inability to focus as disinterest, boredom or even rebellion.

Since the ability to read provides the foundation for all future learning, it is important not to ignore the problem or give in to frustration and tell your child that reading well is not important. If you think your child could use some extra help getting their reading skills up to par, find an auditory processing disorder treatment that may be a good fit.

What Is Auditory Processing Disorder?

Kids who have auditory processing disorder often find it difficult to make sense out of the sounds and words they hear every day. In some cases, children who suffer from this disorder also have anxiety or attention deficit hyperactive disorder that can make their auditory processing disorder symptoms even worse. Kids who have auditory processing disorder often exhibit the following symptoms:

• *Intense frustration about school
• *Poor grades
• *Problems interacting with peers
• *Mispronouncing certain words (such as saying “dat” instead of “that”)
• *Inability to read well

There is no medication available for auditory processing disorder, but treating other accompanying conditions such as anxiety or ADHD with medication may help lessen the effects of auditory processing disorder in some children. It is important to talk with your child’s doctor when assessing whether or not medication is the right choice of action for your child’s symptoms.

How Can Non-Medicinal Treatment Help?

Although there is no medication for auditory processing disorder, there are programs available that effectively help kids learn how to recognize sounds and read words more fluidly. These programs focus on building a strong foundation of reading skills in younger children and developing reading comprehension and critical thinking in older kids. These programs are designed to discover and address the root cause of your child’s comprehension and improve cognitive function.

Children who successfully complete auditory processing disorder test in NJ may find themselves good candidates for programs like the Fast ForWord home tutor typically improve in the following areas: sequencing, attention, processing rate, vocabulary, reading skills, recall and grammar. These skills help children attain higher levels of success academically as well as socially. Kids who know how to read and learn effectively are more likely to become competent adults and successful professionals later on in life.

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Language Processing Disorder and Apraxia Are Linked

Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a motor speech disorder that affects children. Children with apraxia often are unable to produce the movements of the tongue that relate to speech. When children are diagnosed with CAS, many parents and clinicians focus on just helping a child speak, but it’s important to consider how children process information and comprehend what is being told to them. When a child has difficulty speaking, they might have issues with comprehension. Language processing is the mental operation that is used to understand and remember words, sounds and sentences. It all happens in the head, which makes diagnosing it more difficult. Speaking and understanding are directly linked, which is why children with CAS often experience language processing disorder and need treatment.

Symptoms of Comprehension Issues

Children often learn single words and have a large vocabulary, but they might not be able to understand whole phrase or sentences. You might feel like your child is not paying attention or simply “not trying.” Another common symptom of a comprehension problem is when a child operates more effectively in everyday situations rather than times when there are no clues for context. Your child might know a routine, but may repeatedly ask “Huh?” when in a newer situation. Abstract or complex sentences may not be understood, especially when spoken fast. If you are seeing these types of issues, it’s important to make sure the child has normal hearing. Speech-language pathologists offer auditory processing disorder treatment and speech therapy for apraxia.

Suggestion for Dealing With Language Processing Disorder

When a child has a language processing disorder, you’ll need to work with a speech and language pathologist to provide direct therapy to assist your child. There are things you can do at home to assist your child. Demonstrate that you don’t always understand when people speak to you. Don’t pretend you understand something when you really don’t. Show how to work with another person to fix a communication breakdown. You can also point out speech sounds in words. Make silly sound games or rhyming part of your daily routine. A tongue twister, such as “Sally sells seashells by the seashore,” helps your child understand how some words and sounds are very similar to each other. To help kids with articulation problems, you may need to slow down your own speech when talking to your child to ensure they don’t just “get by.” Teach them to ask someone to slow down when speaking or to re-explain. This way, as they get older, they have the tools they need to perform more effectively.

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What Should Parents Know About Self-Regulation and Childhood Development?

Is your child having difficulty coping with challenging and unexpected situations? New situations can be especially distressing for children. Parents sometimes struggle to help their children learn the coping skills required to regulate their emotions and responses to stressful, upsetting, and confusing situations. Managing one’s reactions is a skill-set that everyone has to develop and to a greater or lesser degree, most of us have. As essential as these skills are, few people have been actually taught self-regulation. Deliberately learning these skills and then putting them into practice makes coping with unexpected and stressful situations easier. In fact, these skills are not difficult to learn if you have the right teacher and a willing child. Parents can help children learn self-regulation by first recognizing how these skills manifest in their own lives.

What Exactly Is Self-Regulation?

Self-regulation is a process that helps people select appropriate responses to new situations. The process can be broken down into several different steps that might be described like this:

• Recognizing that one is reacting to a situation, circumstance, or condition
• Acknowledging these reactions
• Naming the reactions
• Identifying the responses that will prevent these reactions from causing increased distress
• Reframing the situation through the application of appropriate responses
• Reassessing one’s feelings
• Repeating the regulation steps if necessary.

All children absorb the lessons taught by their experiences to help them determine how to respond to new situations. Internalizing this process comes very easily to some children; others struggle to internalize the lessons of past experiences and so react in a manner that does not suit the situation. As a result, some children can struggle with learning and may exhibit behavior problems.

Self-Regulation Is Connected to Many Aspects of Life

Adults have been absorbing and internalizing experiences for many more years more than children. It can be hard for even the most patient and understanding adult to put themselves back into the position of a child. Recognizing that children self-regulate at different speeds is very important. Moreover, adults must be very careful to keep their expectations realistic. A very young child will have a much different capacity for self-regulation than one that is even a few years older.

Even though self-regulation is a process that is naturally developed as a child grows, there are certain ways that parents, teachers, and other guardians might promote this. Zones of Regulation is just one particular program that aims to develop executive function skills in order to help children actively internalizing the situations they encounter.

Learning self-regulation is part of growing up but many parents can help the process by getting their kids involved with summer camps teaching social skills. Understanding how responses are selected is a good way to start improving one’s own mental stance.

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Help Your Child Develop Socially This Summer

As a parent, it’s difficult to see your child struggle in social settings. How they interact with their peers during the preschool and grammar school years sets the table for how well they’ll do in more complex environments later in their lives. Identifying and addressing their struggles during this important formative period is much easier than it may be during the adolescent and teenage years, when kids tend to become more distant and withdrawn. Yet helping your child overcome the struggles that he or she experiences socially is often too big of a challenge for you to effectively tackle on your own.

Recognizing You May Need Help

Some say that it takes a village to raise a child. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than cases where a child is struggling with emotional, developmental, or behavioral issues. Your unique insight into your child’s personality is vital to helping them overcome the obstacles he or she faces in his or her social growth. Yet often, introducing outside influences may serve as the perfect complement to your own efforts in helping your child to improve.

Summertime is one of the most ideal times to help your kid start to build better social skills. He or she has more chances to interact with his or her peers socially, and the increased time that you have with him or her will help you better observe what his or her particular struggles may be. Becoming much more popular today are the summer time social skills camps that seem to be popping up in most of the more suburban neighborhoods. In our region of New Jersey, you can just do a search for summer camps for kids and be overwhelmed with great opportunities for your child. The chance to be surrounded by other children that share many of your kid’s same issues could help him or her to develop better social skills if the program has that aspect as a goal. Add into that that mix counselors trained specifically to help children develop more effective executive function skills like organizing and planning, and you can start to see the positive impact that such a program can have on both yours and your child’s life.

Resources throughout the Country

Many mistakenly think that such programs are only geared towards teens and tweens. However, you’ll find that there are a number of social skills camps designed specifically for children in elementary or preschool.  Among the more popular are:

• - Emerald Cove Day Camp – San Juan Capistrano, CA.
• - Sport Fit Tennis Camps – Bowie, MD.
• - Social Thinking Groups – Princeton, NJ.
• - Charis Hills – Sunset, TX.
• - Camp Buckskin – Isabella, MN.
• - Camp Mirman – Los Angeles, CA.

The first step in helping your child develop social skills is realizing that you’re not alone in your struggles. There are resources out there like the aforementioned summer programs for kids and this preschool summer camp in Princeton NJ that will place your son or daughter in the ideal setting to overcome the challenges he or she may be facing. By embracing this assistance, you’ll see a dramatic change in your child’s temperament, placing him or her in a much better position to succeed as he or she enters the next school year.

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Reasons Your Child with ADHD Struggles in Social and Emotional Situations

Boys and girls with all subtypes of ADHD frequently experience more emotional and social difficulties than other children. For instance, because of problems controlling or regulating emotional reactions or reading social cues, they may have trouble making and keeping friends. Many children with ADHD also have a conduct, oppositional defiant, or anxiety disorder, which can further add to their emotional and social struggles.

Helping Children with ADHD and Social and Emotional Problems

A variety of options exist for helping children develop social skills where they are experiencing problems, such as in the classroom. In fact, children who feel connected to their school are more likely to achieve academic success and engage in pro-social behavior with enhanced social skills training. Creating a positive learning environment establishes a connection for children. Parents can also help their children with ADHD in the following ways:

-Celebrating small and large successes

-Noticing when they handle a situation successfully

-Discussing the consequences of behavior or actions

-Stressing the importance of following through on promises

-Talking about tough situations encountered with other kids

-Encouraging empathy by considering how the other child may feel

-Playing games requiring cooperation, concentration, and following rules

-Helping them understand the importance of respecting personal boundaries and space

An experience counselor can offer emotional intelligence training with support, modeling, appropriate behavior training and plenty of positive feedback from teachers and parents can all help bolster appropriate behavior.

Social Skills Training

Social skills activities help ADHD kids manage and keep friends, improve interpersonal relationships, enhance communication abilities, practice anger management, and boost their confidence. With diligence and a team effort, children can learn social skills and expand their emotional intelligence. With solid social skills in place, children with ADHD develop positive self-esteem, interact better with their peers, and are more likely to encounter both professional and social success as adults. This speech and language pathologist in New Jersey provides impulse control disorder treatment in the form of social interaction and play with peers that have similar challenges.

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Should Your Child Be Screened for Oral Motor Disorders?

When kids are learning to talk, they often mispronounce words and we all think it’s cute. Just like children have to build up their muscles to walk, they need to develop oral muscles that are used in speaking.

In many cases, the weaknesses with word pronunciation that we hear get resolved without intervention because children make improvements by practicing and developing those verbal skills. However, there’s also a chance your child is coping with an oral motor disorder that requires professional guidance to treat.

Types of Oral Motor Disorders

Oral motor disorders fall into two types:

1. Articulation disorders

2. Developmental Apraxia of Speech (DAS)

A child who is dealing with either of these issues may not only have trouble with speech, but could also struggle with mouth-related tasks such as sipping from a straw or eating. Children with DAS frequently have difficulty moving their mouths in the ways that are necessary to form words, whereas kids who’ve been diagnosed with articulation disorders might have lisps, be unable to say certain sounds or substitute one word for another.

Visual and Audible Symptoms of Oral Motor Disorders

As a parent, you arguably know your child better than anyone else. That’s why parents are usually the first to notice that something might be wrong with the way your children are verbally expressing themselves. Some of the most obvious clues of possible problems include:

1. Gagging often while eating
2. Failing to say certain consonants after age three
3. Not liking to eat foods that must be chewed
4. Having difficulty putting sounds in the right order to form words
5. Struggling to move the tongue
6. Consistently displaying an open or drooping mouth even while not speaking
7. Drooling after the age of 18 months
8. Being hard to understand


Diagnosing and Treating Oral Motor Disorders

Doctors aren’t sure what causes oral motor disorders in children, but they frequently recommend seeking a diagnosis as soon as possible by visiting a speech pathology center near you. You can likely get a referral by your child’s pediatrician. Oral motor disorders usually become most apparent around age two.

These issues are often treated through speech and language center. A speech pathologist in New Jersey will serve as a good resource for both you and your child’s teachers.

Discovering that your child is not developing at the same average rate as his or her peers can feel overwhelming. However, your best course of action is to get information through speech therapist in Somerset County so you can choose the best course of action for a child with oral motor disorders.

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