Description:

Children who lack social skills are ignored, rejected or bullied. Teaching social skills through “talking” about the skills does not seem to be understood by children who have social deficiencies. They know what to do, but they just don’t do it. Play Therapy is a natural course to take to teach social skills to children. Through individual or group settings, the play opens the avenue to knowledge by allowing the child to feel what it is like to have social skills. These children cannot learn by just seeing or hearing. Children who are deficient in social skills need to feel it to know it. When something is fun, children persist at it, learn more, and become more fully engaged. This workshop will provide the participants with various methods of play therapy that can be used to teach social skills. DVD presentations will illustrate some of the techniques, while others will be done experientially.​

Learning Objectives:

• Define four categories of social skills
• Understand the importance of social skills               
• Discuss some clinical and subclinical concerns for socially deficient children
• Understand Cognitive Development
• Discuss how play therapy enhances social skills development
• Learn how to use play therapy in order to facilitate social skills.