Research and experience show that children and adolescents who struggle with emotional, behavioral and social problems do improve when they learn prosocial skills. Social skill instruction, therefore, can be a vital component in the treatment planning for a child diagnosed with a mental health disorder. Teaching Social Skills to Youth with Mental Health Disorders is a guide for therapists, counselors, psychologists, educators, and other practitioners trying to help these youth get better.

Difficulties with social skills are among the biggest challenges for children with autism. This landmark, research-based essay collection is an overview of the best practices for teaching social skills to people with autism. Thirteen contributors include well known professionals who describe what works best for learners with autism: - parent training to increase their toddler's engagement & play - combining approaches in small group settings with typically developing peers - targeting core deficits of autism with Pivotal Response Treatment - using conversational scripts, video modeling, and peer-mediated interventions - employing naturalistic teaching strategies Behavior analysts, teachers, early interventionists, SLPs, graduate students, and anyone who instructs other professionals how to teach children with autism can consult this book to find tried-and-true approaches to teaching social skills. Parents, too, may wish to consult this book if they are seeking a more effective approach to helping their child master social skills.

Parents, this book offers direct, sense-making, step-by-step exercises that parents can do with their children to increase their social skills and awareness. Based on the highly successful social skills training groups that have been directed by Cathi Cohen for many years, Raise Your Child's Social I.Q. provides parents with the structure to work on skills at home--how to join a group, how to choose friends, how to notice what people around you are feeling, how to handle angry feelings and much, much more.