Working on social skills virtually presents its own special challenge, and I am so excited to talk with Tricia Detig from Detig Dialect about strategies she uses in her virtual therapy sessions. Tricia works with children in grades 6-8, and she really feels like these students are thriving academically with virtual work.

However, being at home and away from constant peer interaction means that students are even more distracted by phones and everything going on around them, and their therapy sessions focusing on social skills have taken on a new challenge.

Tricia has restructured her therapy session so that in small chunks of time, she’s able to:

• Focus on small skills
• Practice that skill
• Embed a couple of games
• Throw in some targets

Because her students are older, Tricia is able to use virtual games like Baamboozle and Among Us to reinforce social skill goals. There are some other expectations that she just doesn’t have for this age group, like letting them sometimes leave the camera off, but by explicitly giving instructions, she’s able to control the session’s outcome much better. More than ever, middle school students with autism need someone they can trust, and that has continued to be a focus for Tricia throughout the pandemic.

What's Inside:

• How Tricia uses Google hangouts, Google chat, and Google calendar to connect with her students.
• As part of a larger objective to help students transition to high school, Tricia teaches them how to talk to people that they don’t want to talk to.
• Tips for teaching social skills goals when everyone is still stuck at home.
• Tricia shares her favorite games and how she uses them to reinforce therapy sessions, and to reward students’ behavior.