Social Skills Training?

Thanks Nicky.  I'll have a look through and share with my son too.  

It's one of those issues that has not only run through my own life but also seems to be a familial problem.  Prior Tony younger son's informal diagnosis with Asperger's I had been thinking it was simply a family trait.

Hi JennyButterfly,

In the hope that it's useful, I am posting a link to this NAS page'Social isolation and social interaction' which has lots of information and links within it, including some links to finding social groups -  https://www.autism.org.uk/about/communication/social-isolation.aspx

Hope this helps,

Nicky-Mod

In my forties, and through an unexpected turn of events, I attended a basic level 1 interpersonal skills course at our local college.  It was meant as an introduction to counselling but could also be a standalone module and once I went (thinking, well, it's only a few weeks so I might be able to manage) I really felt I'd discovered something amazing.  

Away from the hard-faced world of office life and the bookkeeping and accountancy courses I'd struggled with, here was something that actually grabbed me.  A course with the central tenets of empathy, genuineness and unconditional positive regard.  Why had nobody told me about this before?  

45 years of age and coming home to self.  I really needed that course 30 years earlier.  

I have my first appointment for post diagnostic support in January so I'm planning on seeing what's available and finding my feet before maybe going on to see whether I'll be able to contribute in some way. 

I'm also very much hoping that I'll learn something of use to my son too, but we'll see.  

Oh yes, ofcourse! He would never take a course given by you

Probably also better to have some distance to the person giving the course.

You should give some kind of autism related course though! If you're not already. 

Thanks Blank.  I have a strong idea of the course I would have liked to have gone on in my late teens/early 20s.  It might have saved me a LOT of heartache.  

My interest in self help spilled over into counselling, expert patient groups and charity work later in life so the course I'd run would be an amalgam of these approaches plus some autism-specific material.

Alas, if I were running it my son would run a mile!  Sigh...

Reading that, I think you should set up a class/course like that yourself! You seem to have good ideas and quite some knowledge.

My ideal scenario:  A non patronising, person-centred, weekly course or class with numbers of, say, 15 or less, which operates a bit like introductory counselling/interpersonal skills courses but with an autism slant and for adults.  (My son could do with one for young adults with exercises appropriate to his age group but I can see the need for a good mix of participants and also for older adults for whom there doesn't seem to be much provision).

It would involve working via whole group, small group, triad and dyad exercises with regular feedback and maybe some journalling and reflection in between sessions. 

Some supplementary reading maybe.  Thinking about the recommendation of "How to win friends and influence people", I can see a role for a " book club corner" in which participants either read and share/discuss or perhaps prepare reviews.  If I were leading the group , I'd probably have a table with some self help classics as well as some autism-specific material.  

Some out of class activities might also help.  Field work, so to speak, because experiential learning would be a strong part of the process.  

Failing that, I think I'll just get him a unicorn for Christmas...

Ah, I'm a long term user of self help books & I actually read this a long time ago at the age of around 14!   Some good stuff in there but I'd have to kind of sell it to my son. 

It's probably a bit cheesy but you could try: How to Win Friends and Influence People:

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/0091906814

Have a look at the table of contents and extracts and see what you think.

I hope there are programmes or courses to help develop some sort of social skills, don't get me wrong! And I hope they work too. 

Let us know if you do come across something that helps.

So far I've not contacted them directly so I'll do that, but looking through the list of services, I can't find anything.

I do have an appointment with a local autism charity in January, as a follow-up to my own diagnosis last month, but I'm not sure whether what I want actually exists.  

Loads of references to social skills programmes and support, but no actual links to said support.  :(

To be honest I thought that was a bit of a lost mission. And I can completely adhere to what he's saying. 

Have you tried contacting the NAS?