Destination Friendship: A Model To Developing Friendships In Individuals With ASD

This session will highlight a newly published resource: Destination Friendship: Developing Social Skills for Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders or Other Social Challenges. It will describe a proactive approach to instruction that includes subtle coaching, social scripting and immediate opportunities to practice skills to foster friendships. The Friendship Skills Checklist and the link between the Destination Friendship strategies and the National Standards Report will be discussed. Practical and fun activities in which the strategies can be applied will be described. This presentation will highlight the Destination Friendship Model, an innovative new curriculum that provides easy-to-use, research-based strategies and activities to support the development of friendship skills in children with ASD and related disorders. The Friendship Skills Checklist, a comprehensive, yet informal method to gather detailed information regarding an individual’s friendship skills performance will also be explained.  Participants will learn practical methods designed to enhance friendship skills in a fun way.

It is well documented that individuals with ASD have difficulty forming the same social relationships with peers as observed in neurotypical individuals.  Many children with ASD have a desire for friends, but do not know how to develop these friendships.  This session will provide a framework to foster the development of friendships in individuals with ASD.  The strategies and activities described promote generalization of skills so individuals with ASD can participate more fully with peers across environments.

Destination Friendship participants and or their parents have reported positive outcomes after their experiences.  Many participants are now being invited to birthday parties, play dates and get-togethers within their communities for the first time.

 Individuals who participate in this session will leave with a wealth of strategies they can utilize when working with individuals with ASD and other social challenges. These strategies will be defined and illustrated so participants can apply them easily in a variety of social settings.   They will also gain knowledge about fun and practical activities they can replicate within schools and communities to foster the development of friendships.