social skills

Photo of a red humanoid toy with a square head and googly eyes. Its mouth is downturned as though sad, and its limbs are raised toward its head.

Accepting Compliments While Autistic

Many autistic people find accepting compliments and being kind to ourselves difficult, especially if our experience has been that other people lambast us if we dare to exist openly while autistic.

Black-and-white photo of two young embracing Black children, one with a shaved head, light button up shirt, and dark pants, the other with a  white horizontal-striped tank dress and long box braids.

Teach Social Skills As Values, Not Like Computer Programs

Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) taught me that social skills were context-free rules I had to follow: forcing my hands to be quiet, staring back at eyeballs that bored into mine, contorting myself to make myself look less autistic at the expense of my happiness and overall well-being.

147722422_39b18907f6_h-5796591

The Trouble With “Social Coaching” Tech for Autism

M. Kelter theinvisiblestrings.com MIT researchers recently announced that they are developing a wrist watch which analyzes a conversation, then provides feedback about the emotional content of the discussion. Though the watch is still early in development, MIT’s press for the device suggests it may one day provide autistics with a better way to grasp the subtle nuances

How to Be Socially Awkward, or, What I Learned In Social Skills Class

N. M. Silber extemporarysanity.wordpress.com We want April — Autism Acceptance Month — to matter, to help further acceptance and understanding of autistic experiences, happiness, and rights for autistic people of all ages and abilities. We will be publishing your Autism Acceptance posts and pictures all month long. If you want to participate, contact us at

When Autism and Schizoaffective Converge

Cissi Tsang www.samarobryn.com There have been various studies and speculation abounding regarding the relationship between the autism spectrum and the schizophrenia spectrum. That is not surprising because there are some similarities in behaviours between the two. Both conditions feature such things as social withdrawal, difficulty with empathy and difficulty with reading verbal and non-verbal cues.

8089376620_1dabacb53a_n-1409304

Have You Seen Flummox and Friends Yet?

Shannon Des Roches Rosa www.squidalicious.com Have you seen the pilot episode of Flummox and Friends yet? Or — back up — did you hear that Christa Dahlstrom created a show just for quirky kids and the people who love (and/or identify with) them? Here’s how Christa described the show in a recent BlogHer interview: “Flummox

Getting Through the Holidays!?

We chose the punctuation above for a reason — cautious optimism and the hope that, with the right guidance and attitude, we can make it through the winter holidays, possibly even with some happy memories. So if you, your families, and your friends are hunkering down for the holidays; and if you, like some of

7835613978_1ef11d3b5a_n-5960890

How Apps Can Support Social Skills

Shannon Des Roches Rosa www.squidalicious.com www.blogher.com Sometimes I think social skills apps are redundant, since iPads are themselves such social magnets. These tablets can motivate people of all abilities to interact, and give them a common ground for communicating. But as social skills are multi-faceted, and since different folks need support in specific areas, I

Scroll to Top