Looking around, you might quickly realize that there are many reasons why a person may have a social skills deficit. These can occur based on a lack of knowledge, such as the inability to acquire new skills, or even a competency deficit. Other factors could be that your child knows how to perform the social skill, but struggles to perform them based on limited practice or inadequate feedback. Internal or external factors can interfere with your child performing appropriate social skills, such as anxiety, ADHD or other chaotic surroundings. Here are five common types of social skills deficits.
· Basic Communication Skills
o These skills include the ability to listen, follow directions and refrain from speaking.
o Listening skills are demonstrated through indicating attention, such as nodding, smiling and giving or reflecting feedback on what has been said or discussed
o The ability to refer to past comments, such as tying a current statement to a previous one, or question(s) about potential, future ideas, actions or events.
o Basic communication skills are those that include body language and behaviors, eye contact, and physical stillness along with emotional attentiveness while other people are talking.
· Empathy and Rapport Skills
o Certain cognitive, behavioral and mental health conditions may limit your child’s individual ability to feel empathy and connect with others. Those who suffer from severe social anxiety and those who are highly self-conscious for example may display either too little or too much focus on someone else.
o This could mean your child is desperate to please others and avoid confrontation, so they pay close attention to what others say and always volunteer to help or do favors, but on the other end your child may feel overwhelmed by their social environment and simply shut down around others.
· Interpersonal Skills
o These types of skills include the ability of sharing, joining activities, asking for permission and waiting for their turn.
o In this category your child may struggle with asking accurate and concise questions, being able to ask simple questions creates barriers to obtain information and initiating conversation.
o Not being able to ask questions can cause your child to appear disinterested and even anti-social.
o Difficulties with these social skills can have your child asking close ended questions because these kinds of questions elicit brief and controlled responses.
· Problem Solving Skills
o Having difficulties with problem solving involves your child not asking for help when needed, apologizing to others, and deciding what to do and accepting consequences.
o Your child can struggle to identify the root causes of problems, causing them to not fully understand potential solutions or strategies.
o They may prefer to avoid such problems because they may be morbidly shy or clinically introverted.
o Having poor problem solving skills will most likely also mean having poor conflict resolution skills.
o Struggles with problem solving can cause your child to be unable to deal with teasing or losing in competitions.
· Accountability
o Your child may be petrified of being criticized in public and struggle with accepting the blame for problems or dealing with constructive feedback.
o This social skill is an essential part of conflict management because recognizing mistakes are an excellent way to indicate a calm and cooperative attitude.
If you notice your son or daughter struggles socially, check out our social skills groups! We target their specific needs, while having fun.