What Is Socialization Training?

Socialization training provides students social language opportunities in a structured, safe environment. Groups meet each week and are facilitated by a licensed Speech Language Pathologist. Students are matched with developmentally suitable peers, and as such, students are less likely to get overwhelmed or withdrawn during interactions.

Targeted skills include:

Social referencing

Establishing joint attention

Turn taking

Conversation skills

Team building

Developing partners

Perspective taking

Conflict resolution

What Kind of Program Is It?

The socialization training program at ARS represents a fusion of social development ideologies and therapeutic approaches. Each student's program is individually designed with the student's unique needs in mind. As students learn how to develop peer relationships and communicate socially, they make friends.

Who Benefits From Socialization Training?

Any student demonstrating difficulties with pragmatic language and developing peer relationships can benefit from socialization training. Students are ready to participate in the program if they demonstrate basic attention to task, are able to follow simple directions, can emotionally self regulate in the presence of other students, and demonstrate a basic awareness of others. This program is designed for preschool students over the age of three, elementary school students, and adolescents. Students are ready to participate in the program if they demonstrate basic attention to task, and are able to follow simple directions. Younger students need not necessarily have well developed verbal skills to benefit from this program.

How Do I Get Started?

The first step is a socialization evaluation to determine if s/he could benefit from this treatment. The evaluation and treatment can be funded through ALTA California Regional Center, your school district, or privately. Contact ARS, your case worker at ALTA, or your school district to get started.

Why Socialization?

"Perspective taking is crucial to the development of advanced social thinking and related skills." -Garcia-Winner

Play is often called the "work" of childhood, and serves numerous developmental functions. Play provides students the opportunity to learn about objects and events, language for talking about these objects and events, and sets the occasion for a variety of social and communicative interactions. Play is often considered a indicator of cognitive and language development.

"Relationship competence requires a careful, systematic layering of skills. They must be taught with increasing complexity carefully added." -Prizant

"The development of spontaneous, functional communication abilities and emotional regulatory capacities which support all aspects of development and independence, are of the highest priority in educational and treatment efforts." -Prizant

"It's been amazing to see what a difference this program has made for my son. Making friends and caring about others, he is really enjoying life."
-Nannette Henderson, Parent

American River Speech Adult Socialization Training

American River Speech is pleased to announce the expansion of our socialization training program to include young adults through age 22. Our Adult Relationship Skills sessions will target basic manners in social interactions, verbal and non-verbal communication and conversation skills, communication roadblocks, and building relationships.

Basic requirements for success in this group are:

High cognitive functioning
Absence of aggression or physical behaviors
Basic conversation skills and interest in others

Adult Socialization Brochure: Side 1 (567KB .jpg) | Side 2 (542KB .jpg)

socialization training | why socialization training | who benefits
how to start | why socializatio | adult skills

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