“Why my child not playing with other?”, “Why he/she so naughty?”, “Don’t he/she likes to play? “Why is he/she always playing alone?”, “why he/she is so shy?”. These questions seem familiar for parents with special needs children, but do they know why their children behaved so? It is normal as children with special needs often struggle and face difficulties interacting with people around them. They sometimes struggle to make eye contact, respond appropriately, ask and answer questions and not knowing the rules and norms in different social situation settings. As they are lacking in socializing skills therefore, it causes them to feel overwhelmed and thus they choose to be alone instead.
What are social skills? Social skills are the skills we use everyday to interact and communicate with others, both verbally and non-verbally e.g. gestures and body language. Social skills guides us to respond, interact and communicate appropriately with the world around us. Therefore, learning social skills is important for children with special needs so that they may learn the necessary essential skills needed in today’s society.
Our social play group adopts Social Thinking approach which involves the interpreting of others thoughts, intentions, emotions, beliefs, knowledge, and actions together with social situation. It guides the children to think about the effects of their own behaviour on others and teaches them to be more socially appropriate and respond to different situations. Our social play group is a series of functional and facilitated play that uses a combination of social thinking concepts and plays, in order that the children can practice their social skills in more nurture and natural environments. Skills that covered in this program includes:
- Emotion regulation
- Conversational skills
- Friendship skills
- Team cooperation skills
- Self-confidence or self - esteem
- Self-expressive skills
- Self-regulation
- Social awareness
- Self-responsibilities
- Leadership skills
- Organizational skills
- Appropriate body language skills
- Hidden & Unhidden social rules or norms
Junior Play Group:
We believe play is the work of children and the time spent on play is never wasted because through play, children not only learn essential skills needed for study but also learn about the world and themselves. Plays helps to develop a confidence, smart and creative children. Our Junior Play Group is designed for children aged between 3-6 years old to play, explore and make friends. In this group, children will learn through a functional and facilitated play which emphasize on fundamental group social skills and play skills. Skills that covered in this program includes:
- Learn to take turn
- Learn to listen
- Learn to follow group plan
- Learn to share
- Learn to communicate with others
- Learn hidden & unhidden rules or norms