The Problem with Social Skills Training for Autistic Kids, Making the Shift Ep. 73

Chris's ND Affirming Activity Book is out NOW! Click below to grab it: https://www.speechdude.com/book The problem with traditional social skills training is that it focuses on teaching autistic individuals to mimic neurotypical behaviors and suppress their autistic traits. ​​And this comes at a significant cost to the autistic individual's self-esteem. By encouraging masking, or hiding one's true self to fit in, these programs can lead to exhaustion, burnout, and a loss of identity. The emphasis on fitting into a conventional mold can increase anxiety, stress, and feelings of inadequacy, as it suggests that an autistic person's natural way of interacting is wrong or insufficient. And I don’t think any of us want that for our students. So this week on Making the Shift, we’re going to be diving into the problem with social skills training and we’ll be giving you our best tips on what we should be doing instead. On this episode, we're discussing... ✔ The problem with traditional social skills training... ✔ The true cost of masking autistic characteristics... ✔ The impact of devaluing autistic communication styles... ✔ What we SHOULD do to foster genuine connections... ✔ And more...