Social Groups
Aspire’s Social Group programs create opportunities for students to make meaningful connections while improving their play and social-skills. Social skills include communication, language, play skills and the ability to make and keep friends. When social skills don’t come naturally, they can be taught and learned with practice. The goal of these 6-week long programs is for children to have a successful and meaningful social experience while learning and practicing specific skills.
These programs are ideal for students who would enjoy and benefit from extra opportunities to engage with similar-aged peers. For this program, students must be able to engage in group activities without 1-to-1 support.
What to expect:
Buddy Zone (3-5 year olds): Fun group games and activities allow students to learn and practice introductory social skills including turn-taking, sharing and playing together. This highly interactive program will keep students engaged and introduce them to the joy of successful interacting with others. This program is hosted on campus at Aspire Academy and is run by 2 of our fabulous educators.
Tween Zone (8-12 year olds): Each week students will engage in fun and interactive activities that help to develop social and conversation skills. Social skills are taught through modeling and role play and movement is incorporated into each session. Students are also introduced to self-compassion and mindfulness practices. This program is hosted online so participants will need to have access to a computer. A caregiver should be in close-proximity to provide support if/when needed.
Goals and Objectives:
Before the first session, our Social Group team will connect with a parent/caregiver(s) to learn more about the student and discuss potential social-skill-related goals. Potential goals and objectives for students in the Social Group programs may be related to:
-
Appropriate conversational skills
-
Starting, maintaining and ending a conversation
-
Learning how to engage in common activities and games
-
Skills for learning about the interests of others
-
Find common interests by trading information
-
Turn taking
-
Appropriately use humour
-
Being a good sport
Details:
-
Our Social Group programs are weekly sessions, for 6 weeks (in-person for children, online for tweens).
-
Our Social Groups programs will run periodically throughout the year. Follow Aspire Academy on Facebook or Instagram for information about upcoming dates.​​​
-
The Aspire Beginnings program is supervised by a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA).
-
Fees for this program can be covered using OAP Funding (i.e. Access OAP, childhood budgets, Interim one-time funding etc.), third-party insurance, private or charitable funds.