This is the six month progress report I received for Nicholas pertaining to Social Skills Training.

The Social Skills Assessment was six months earlier. After attending 1.5 hour weekly sessions with the group the progress report was submitted for further funding from the Regional Center, along with a copy to the parent.

Social Skills Progress Report

6 month Goal #1 – Nicholas will engage joint problem solving and play organization with his peers, demonstrating the ability to understand his peers’ ideas and expressing his own.

Progress – when the group engages in mutual play organization, Nicholas tends to remain silent. He responds to questions given by the facilitator, but does not attempt to express his play ideas with persistence. At times, he loses focus of the group discussion regarding the play ideas for the day. Other times, he focuses on what he wants to talk about and has difficulty noticing that his peers are not paying attention. With adult redirection, he is able to refocus and attend to problem solving.

Objective #1 – Nicholas will demonstrate the ability to understand his peers’ ideas and read social cues.

Objective #2 – Nicholas will express his needs and wants in relation to what the group is discussing.

6 month Goal #2 - Nicholas will express ideas that pertain to his affect, demonstrating the ability to differentiate and define his emotional intent.

Progress - Nicholas currently demonstrates limited differentiated affect. When he dislikes an idea or does not understand, he shies away from the group, hence avoiding the interaction. At times he appears disappointed or angry with a peer, but rarely expresses these thoughts or emotions with others. Often when he is asked to express them, he shrugs and does not comment.

Objective #1 - Nicholas will express differentiates emotional ideas/themes/feelings during interaction(s) with peers.

Objective #2 - Nicholas will initiate emotional ideas and themes in this play and/or during conversational interaction.

6 month Goal #3 - Nicholas will initiate and sustain reciprocal joint interactions with peers for 10-15 minutes with minimal adult support.

Progress - Nicholas has demonstrated the ability to engage in some reciprocal interactions, opening and closing several circles of communication with his peers independently. However, this behavior is not yet consistent. At times, Nicholas starts talking about a particular topic and does not always notice that his peers are not attending to him. On other occasions, he changes his focus from a peer to a facilitator when he realizes that his peers are not listening. He has been observed to engage in a reciprocal interaction for up to approximately 7-10 minutes. Typically, his interactions range from 10-20 circles of communication at a time (approximately 3-5 minutes).

Objective #1 - Nicholas will sustain reciprocal interactions, keeping his responses contingent to those of the person he speaks with.

Objective #2 - Nicholas will read social cues and respond appropriately, demonstrating the understanding of when a peer is listening.

Impressions - Nicholas demonstrates the ability to initiate and sustain engagement with peers independently. However, his behaviors are not consistent. He needs adult prompts to help him understand what his peers’ social cues mean and what he might do about them. His goals indicate steps in increasing his ability to read social cues, problem solve, and increase reciprocal interaction.

Recommendations - It is recommended that Nicholas continue attending Social Skills Group 1x/week for 1.5 hour sessions. Social Skills Group will provide him with the opportunities to practice his reciprocal conversation skills and his ability to read social cues. His development will be reviewed in six months to determine progress.

Fade-Out Plan - Based on Nicholas’s social-emotional development, it is anticipated that he will benefit from the support of Play-Based Social Skills Groups. Therefore, no fade-out plan will come into effect at this time.

Since this Progress Report in April Nicholas has enjoyed meeting a new person who started in the group. Prior to this he had a good friend from summer camp in his group, but due to the number of children in the group they broke it out into two groups. We did not attend Social Skills Group over the summer since Matthew’s Feeding Therapist is on sick leave and I was on jury duty plus the car needed repairs so we were out of commission for two weeks. Nicholas enjoyed being in the same class at summer camp with his friend again and they worked on social skills during camp.

By the middle of November I should be getting another Progress Report and continue with the funding. This progress report gives me ideas on what to work on in the home and to share with his teacher to help facilitate school relationships.


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