Groups
We know parents and teachers talk alot about social “skills.” We have found that kids who have been reported to have ‘poor social skills’ in fact have the skills and know the skills but struggle to perform the skills at the time they’re needed. This could be for a variety of reasons. Some children/teens get overwhelmed (sensory) when there are more people around them, which makes focusing on demonstrating pro-social skills more difficult. Some are excited. Some are anxious. The common thread is difficulties with self-regulation, an Executive Functioning skill.
Groups offer the opportunity to practice the skills in real time, using games and activities where these opportunities can come up. They are then provided feedback in real time, have opportunities to practice the skills, repair communication break-downs, and more. Our therapists conduct an initial consultation with your child or teen to assess their strengths and challenges as they relate to social situations. They continue to assess their strengths and weaknesses even after assignment to a group to determine at which point does that child or teen begin to struggle with self-regulation. We then implement the appropriate intervention to assist them so they can be competent, and feel confident and successful.
With these choices, it’s easy to worry about which one is the best fit for your child or teen. Our therapists will consult with you and your child/teen to assess which group is the best fit and make the appropriate recommendations.
All groups foundationally address improving coping skills, increasing social understanding and the practice of their Executive Functioning skills in sessions.
Skills We Help Master In our Groups
Coping skills
Coping skills help you tolerate, minimize, and deal with stressful situations in life. Coping skills are the tactics that people use to deal with stressful situations. Managing your stress well can help you feel better physically and psychologically and impact your ability to perform your best. There are 5 types of coping skills:
Problem-Focused
Coping
Learning how to break down problems into small chunks and solving each one step at a time.
Emotion-Focused
Coping
Utilizing relaxation practices and creative expression to process emotions more positively.
Social
Support
Turning to close friends, family, or another trusted support for help with solving problems. This can help improve their mood.
Meaning Making
Helps to transform the way a teen views situations by reframing their mindset and journaling to put their feelings into perspective.
Religious Coping
Using faith-based traditions to provide social and emotional support by connecting to nature and volunteering in the commmunity.
Social understanding and social skills
Social understanding permits us to understand and infer ours and others' mental states, such as intentions, desires, and emotions.
Our groups teach social understanding as opposed to only teaching social skills. We find many of our group members have the skills but are unable to demonstrate the skills at the moment. This is likely due to all of the weaknesses in Executive Functioning skills, sensory overwhelm and anxiety that pervades their everyday lives. Practicing social understanding in a small group, dyad or triad with a skilled and trained clinician helps our participants learn how to notice opportunities to implement the new tools and find success. Developing new skills takes time. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Some parents expect improvement right away. While some skills may come easily; others will take longer and will be impacted by stress and anxiety. One thing we can guarantee is that your child/teen will feel more competent and successful during and as a result of our groups. They will receive lots of positive feedback and support.
Your child or teen will learn the foundational and essential skills for making and keeping friends such as joining in, inviting someone to play a game or go to an event, sharing/turn-taking, working in groups (collaborating), perspective-taking, empathizing, fostering successful friendships, developing and improving adaptive behaviors, improving self-confidence, critical thinking, conflict resolution, and more.
Our groups focus on social cognition and the thinking that goes into why we perform social skills. It involves emotional recognition and regulation and social pragmatics. These skills are dynamic, not static. Our philosophy and approach are what make us different from other providers.
Executive Functioning skills
Executive functioning skills are a set of mental skills that we use every day to learn, work, and manage daily life.
Planning – the ability to figure out how to accomplish goals.
Organization – the ability to develop and maintain a system that keeps materials and belongings orderly.
Time Management – having an accurate understanding of how long tasks will take and using time wisely and effectively to accomplish tasks.
Task Initiation – the ability to independently start tasks when needed. It is the process that allows one to just begin something even when you really don’t want to.
Working Memory – the mental processes that allow us to hold information in our minds while working with it.
Self-Control – the ability to regulate yourself, including your thoughts, actions and emotions.
Attention – the ability to focus on a person or task for a period of time, even when bored or tired, and shifting that attention when needed.
Perseverance – the ability to stick with a task and not give up, even when it becomes challenging.
Flexibility – the ability to adapt to new situations and deal with change.
Metacognition – being aware of what you know and using that information to help you learn.
Your child will also learn about their own EF skills, how to improve self-awareness, self-monitoring, and self-regulation; and how to increase their flexibility and critical thinking skills and tools for managing and reducing anxiety.
EF skills are imperative to social, academic, job and life success. Learning about our strengths and weaknesses helps us achieve our goals and effectively meet the challenges of the ever-increasing school, work, and life demands.
We must be able to manage our emotions and attention, organize and plan our work and our time, and reflect and revise our approach as circumstances change.
Our program uses direct instruction as well as interactive and engaging games and activities to build these EF skills.
A great deal of research has concluded that play-based learning is genuinely and positively impactful on student learning and development. This means that children learn better when they are active, engaged, social, and can make meaningful connections to their lives, all of which are characteristics of play-based learning.
All our games and activities provide group members ample opportunity to practice skills such as planning/prioritizing, organization, flexible thinking and problem-solving.
Groups For Every Interest
Maximize
Your Mind
Support Group For Neurodivergent Teens
Dungeons
and Dragons
Monthly Outings for Neurodivergent Teens
Girls’
Empowerment
College Coaching
(Virtual)
How Do I Register?
Step 1: Pre-group Consultation
This meeting is for potential group members and their caregivers. During this meeting, pertinent history is gathered, target skills are identified, and our group format is reviewed.
This meeting also provides an opportunity to get acquainted with our environment and our facilitators, and to ask any questions you may have about our groups programs.
This is a crucial step in the intervention process. As such, it is required for all new group members and must occur prior to starting group interventions.
Step 2: Fees and Policies
The fee for the 30-minute Initial Consultation is $100. $720 for Dungeons and Dragons; $640 for Maximize Your Mind, Girls’ Empowerment, Support Group for Neurodivergent Teens; $1500 for Teen Outings and $1500 for College Coaching.
Payment for the entire session is required to attend to ensure a commitment to the program. There are no refunds/credits for missed groups (with the exception of observed religious holidays). If a member joins in the middle of a session, the fee will be prorated.
Step 3: Participation Guidelines
In addition to your child/teen’s group, there is a parent feedback session. One of the facilitators will provide feedback to parents/caregivers on the skills addressed in the group and areas of challenge. Additionally, there will be suggestions for ways to follow up at home.
There will be periodic parent/caregiver groups offered throughout the year – generally one per session or every other session. We will inform you when these are scheduled.
Some of our families may choose to also receive individual/family therapy, individual coaching, or parent meetings to work on either the same or other challenges. These services can be provided for a separate fee.
Communication with Therapist
For all matters relating to billing, canceling, or scheduling, please call our main number at (954) 526-4437 or email us.
Below is important information about our program and our policies. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Group Method/Instruction:
Eclectic, evidence-based approach, to best meet each member’s individual needs.
Incorporate incidental teaching and errorless learning to increase competency and self-esteem.
Teaching developmentally and/or socially expected behaviors as a replacement for problematic behaviors.
Each group consists of both structured and unstructured activities to create as close to a natural environment as possible.
Our program is not based on a specific curriculum or protocol but developed based on years of clinical experience, current research regarding people’s acquisition and generalization of Executive Functioning skills.
Goal: for each member to have a positive experience while developing skills through organic interactions with their peers.
Group participants will have the opportunity to work with different facilitators, which will also encourage generalization of skills.
Repetition of activities will be utilized to encourage practice of the skills.
Group Responsibility and Commitment
Each group is limited to a maximum of six (6) members in order to optimize the therapeutic interventions.
Facilitators create activities and address target skills based on the needs of the participants.
Any absence can adversely affect the group dynamics, interventions, and learning for all of the members; so please make every effort to attend each week to ensure maximum efficacy for the group and maximum benefit for your child/teen.
We structure the groups to mirror a naturalistic environment.
Members are learning skills through both the facilitators and also through the interactions with their peers.
Consistent attendance is not only important for each member’s growth and progress, but also for the integrity of the entire group.
While we understand emergencies can arise, our policy is that a commitment to attendance is mandatory.
Group Readiness and Matching
Group facilitators appropriately match each members needs to a group that will help them grow.
We will try to accommodate your family’s schedule of day/times; however, our families, individual and/or dyad interventions (different fees apply) may be needed before members can succeed in a larger group. This allows us to assess participant’s responses to various intervention strategies that can then be implemented successfully within a larger group setting.
Members who are new to our groups may initially require more intensive interventions in order to feel competent and successful in the larger groups.
Your group facilitator will discuss this with you directly if this is necessary.
Other Services and When Additional Services are Clinically Indicated
Our groups are designed to facilitate optimal growth for each participant; however, the generalization of these skills will vary depending on the individual, additional services, and other factors.
Partnership: it is encouraged that families schedule periodic individual/family appointments and school/teacher consultations with us so that everyone is able to develop the skills needed to implement the strategies that will help members generalize the skills they are learning in the groups.
Group therapists are available for consultations, individual/family appointments, and school observations/meetings. This is a separate service from the Group program.
Individual/family appointments may also be necessary to attend to other areas (depression, anxiety, etc.) not addressed by the groups, or those areas may require more intensive interventions or an approach different from our groups.
There may be times when group members may require a higher level of care, either in conjunction with our program or in place of the group program. If this is the case, the therapist will discuss this directly with you and provide referrals and other recommended services.