Channel 4 news

[zaman]

there was a piece about the effectiveness of social skills training for AS adults and teens - and the lack of it!

[pearl]

Ooh, is there a link anywhere zaman?

[zaman]

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/soci...search+/2201352

 

 

There is a button on the page to watch the report - but i can never get them to work, perhaps because I'm on a Mac?

[pearl]

It said video unavailable when I tried, & BD sorted out my vid problems last night, so I'm guessing that particular one isnt playing for anyone.

 

Thanks anyway

[NikkiSmith]

It worked for me just now - and is actually quite interesting, even though my other half says he still wouldn't be keen on such a thing when he really could do with some help!

 

Thanks for the link.

 

 

Nikki.

[pearl]

Well I got it this time but its mostly frozen I'll try again later, 3rd time lucky.

[ScienceGeek]

I'm interested in trying social skills training. They are trying to sort something out in Bristol which I was told about when I met up with someone from the NAS regional team last week.

[Mumble]

I just watched it - i think it would be an individual decision whether you wanted it or not. For me, I would rather have something in the context of a social activity I enjoyed, so say support with a climbing club and then the social drinks bit afterwards so I could build up from a safe position. My only concern was how they are measuring the success of this programme. It's one thing knowing what to do, but quite another actually doing it.

[pearl]

The outdoor pursuits club I've found for JP sounds like it might be suitable for you, Mumble - activity based with social events too, pick & choose. Trouble is its in the NW but they may know of others, it might even be a franchise. If you want details pm me.

[pearl]

At last, 5th time of trying I got it to work.

Excellent report.

Its up to us these days to help JP with social skills, theres no one else. He sometimes tells me of something thats happened at work (usually if he's worried he's got it wrong) & we debrief him, most recently he got drawn in to some unwise gossip which could have got him in serious trouble. But its always after the event, we can't cover every eventuality. He now, hopefully, knows to avoid dangerous conversations, but who knows?

[Mumble]

The outdoor pursuits club I've found for JP sounds like it might be suitable for you, Mumble - activity based with social events too, pick & choose. Trouble is its in the NW but they may know of others, it might even be a franchise. If you want details pm me.

Hi Pearl - I'll PM you - I think you mentioned something about this club before and I thought about asking you then. It's exactly the sort of thing I need. Even though they're in the NW, they may know of others in the South. Or maybe I just move to the north, and the mountains, and the quiet, and away form London .... I'm hoping to go to a uni climbing club in the next couple of weeks just to see what goes on, balance between activity/drinking etc and whether it'll suit me - it's led by peeps from the local Institute of Psychiatry (where OGB SBC used to be based ) who know a bit about ASDs so it could be beneficial to me.

 

But its always after the event, we can't cover every eventuality. He now, hopefully, knows to avoid dangerous conversations, but who knows?

This is exactly the problem I have and as yet can't think up a solution. It's almost too late even as something is going wrong, particularly if that person it has gone wrong with isn't very understanding, and I find I have to apply so much of a patch and mend approach rather than getting things right from the beginning. Also something which the NTs (particularly the academicy peeps) round me find really difficult to grasp is the idea (or lack in my case) or transference of skills/scripts between situations. If the context is different in any way (and of course it usually is) I cannot transfer the skills I may have learn about one situation easily. For instance, I had a conversation about my research with someone at a conference that didn't go well, and I was told what to say next time to someone else - so, despite my hatred of role play, because I am so desperate for this to work out, I practised the conversation over and over again (with my teddy!!) doing both sides. Unfortunately, when it came to implement it, the other person said something different to that practised and it threw me completely - I couldn't adapt what I had learnt to fit and so was left floundering again. Far from getting easier the more conferences etc I attend, it's getting harder, because I'm adding to my repertoire of mistakes. I'm really not sure what the solution is, other than a far more tolerant society that accepts difference.

[pearl]

The climbing club sounds like a good idea.

With JP, its often when he relaxes that the trouble starts, he enjoys chatting & gets carried away. Then worries that he's said the wrong thing. Usually he hasnt, but in this particular case he had. And its the transferring of skills thing again - every situation being slightly different, knowing when its ok to have a joke & when its not, crossing boundaries. Its a minefield, but at least with his managers being aware of his AS, they understand there's no malice, & that sometimes he just needs to be told clearly how to behave.