Social, Emotional, and Play Skills
This work builds the skills children use with other people — playing, taking turns, joining in, and managing big feelings — practiced with the people your child actually spends time with rather than in a room of unfamiliar peers.
What this looks like in your home
- Taking turns with a sibling over a real toy that both of them want.
- Joining a game already in progress.
- Handling losing.
- Recognizing when they need space before it escalates.
- Playing alongside a cousin at a family gathering.
Skills we commonly target
- Turn-taking and sharing
- Joining and sustaining play
- Emotional regulation and coping strategies
- Reading and responding to social cues
- Tolerating changes to a plan
How sessions run
Play is the medium here rather than a reward at the end of the work. Sessions use the toys and games your child already cares about, with real people in the room, and the skill is practiced in the middle of something your child wants to keep doing. That is what makes turn-taking meaningful: the toy is one both children actually want.
How progress is measured
Progress is tracked continuously using data collected during sessions. Goals are reviewed and adjusted as your child grows and changes.
Your role
Families usually have more social opportunities available than they realize — a sibling, a cousin, a neighbor, a weekend gathering. We help you use them, coach you through supporting your child in the moment, and talk through a situation ahead of time when that helps. Siblings are included only as far as they want to be.
An honest note about peers
A clinic offers ready-made peer access and we do not. If a child’s central need is structured time with a group of same-age peers every day, a center-based program has something we cannot match, and we will say so.
What we offer instead is practice with real siblings, cousins, and neighbors in settings your child will actually be in. Those relationships continue after therapy ends, and the living room where a game goes wrong is the same living room where it can go better next week. Both models have real trade-offs, and we lay them out plainly on our in-home versus center-based comparison.
Feelings are part of the same work
Social skills and emotional regulation are difficult to separate. Losing a game, having a plan change, or waiting for a turn all ask a child to manage a feeling before they can manage the interaction. Coping strategies are taught alongside the social skill rather than as a separate curriculum, and they are practiced in the ordinary moments where they are needed rather than only when things are calm.
Who delivers it
Sessions are delivered by a Registered Behavior Technician under ongoing supervision from your Board Certified Behavior Analyst, who designs the program, reviews the data, and updates goals.
Related services
Common questions
Can social skills be taught without a group of peers?
They can be taught with the people your child actually spends time with — siblings, cousins, and neighbors — rather than a room of unfamiliar peers. A clinic offers ready-made peer access and we do not. What we offer instead is practice in the settings your child will actually be in.
What do you work on in this area?
Turn-taking and sharing, joining and sustaining play, emotional regulation and coping strategies, reading and responding to social cues, and tolerating changes to a plan. Which ones come first is decided with you.
Are siblings involved?
Often, and usually with good reason. A sibling is the person a child negotiates with over a real toy that both of them want. Sibling involvement is always voluntary and shaped so it stays play rather than turning into a job.
Who runs the sessions?
A Registered Behavior Technician delivers sessions in your home under ongoing supervision from your Board Certified Behavior Analyst, who designs the program, reviews the data, and updates goals.