Kelly McKinnon is rightfully known as a guru in social skills coaching for children with Autism. It is a gift to all of us that she wrote a book to explain how she works her magic. Her book is both a practical guide and an in-depth look at the challenges of Autism.
Marcy Willard had the privlege of working with Kelly for a special project at the clinic. Marcy’s work with the clinic entailed the development of a new division targeting auditory processing delays. Marcy found Kelly McKinnon’s clinic, in San Juan Capistrano California to produce amazing results. Kelly is a true expert in Applied Behavioral Analysis and applies the methods daily at the clinic. The children there are challenged and supported at the same time. Many of the children there are so competent in social skills and so well adjusted that a layperson would never guess they have Autism. Perhaps even more importantly, the kids actually have fun together.
Peer Play and the Autism Spectrum:
This book by Pamela Wolfberg explains the logic and basis for her well known model, ‘The Integrated Playgroup Model (IPG). The program is based on the concept of peer modeling, a long known behavioral technique. We know from the research that children often learn more quicly and more effectively from modeling their behavior after other children. The Integrated Plagroup model takes advantage of modeling by involving a small numer of children with Autism coupled with an even or greater number of typical kids. The first advantage of this technique is that small groups are much less intimidating to Autistic children who may have suffered a great deal of rejection in social settings in the past. It is no wonder that (behaviorally speaking), Autistic children often shy away from social gatherings. The Integrated playgroup model, with the small number of children and the one to one ratio of playgroup faciliators to Autistic children takes a lot of the ‘intimidation factor’ out of the situation. Further, the peers who are chosen to participate are ‘social stars’. They demonstrate, through play and through their reactions, what works and what doesn’t. If a child does not respect personal space, for example, the social star may say, “you are too close” or “get away”… at that point a facilitator will help the Autistic child to understand what went wrong in the interaction. Also, the typical child will be taught how to correctly communicate boundary issues or other issues.
This model is not only logical and well respected, it has also been demonstrated repeatedly in the research to be effective. Dr. Wolfberg is a professor at the San Francisco State University in the Special Education Department. She does seminars and conferences about her model worldwide. Additionally, she is supportive and helpful to parents and clinicians who wish to apply the model in a local setting.
