A Social Skills Game worth checking out.

Sometimes it can be challenging to work on Social Skills with older children who are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders.  Finding materials that are motivating and provide the right amount of challenge can be difficult.  Most students I work with can answer questions related to basic social skills.  Should Johnny yell at the teacher?  Of course not.  They have more difficulty with questions where they may not be one right or wrong answer.

Joel Shaul’s website: AutismTeachingStrategies.com has a plethora of treatment ideas, freebies and products for purchase.  I’ve used the free parts of his Green Zone for conversational topic choices and found that my students were able to grasp these concepts quickly.

RYUU-The Game® is a card game similar to Pokemon® or Yu-Gi-Oh.  It was created by Joel Shaul and Rebecca Klaw.  It’s a brilliant idea.  It combines dragons-(awesome) with a “role playing” type of game.  The version I played, the student had to answer 2 questions to evolve his dragon.  Each dragon evolves through stages as they become more socially aware.  There are pages of insightful questions and role plays provided on the accompanying CD.  
 

I love this product because it gets kids REALLY excited about thinking about Social Skills.  And it takes the initial pressure off of them to succeed because they are answering questions for their DRAGONS.