SocialSkills

Social Skills Training

Port View Preparatory® offers comprehensive programs and services designed to educate, stimulate and socially assimilate students with complex challenges beyond the years they spend with us. We strive to be the preparatory launching pad that helps propel students to reach their highest potential academically, emotionally, physically and socially. At Port View Prep, we believe that relevant and developmentally appropriate social skills are critical to students’ success and ability to develop meaningful relationships and rich lives outside of the school setting.

Our team of professional and credentialed teachers and support providers organize social skills groups based on developmental levels and chronological age. It’s interesting because if you ask someone how they learned to read nonverbal cues in daily interactions, they may say that they learned through observing social situations around family and friends. Many may not even realize where they picked up on social skills and cues; they just naturally developed them throughout the process of growth and development.

"To be honest with you, I haven't had a worry or care in the world about Mikey's safety since he started at PVP."
- Rachel Darr
"My son had been to different Non Public Schools but nothing compared to Port View. We finally found the right and great  school for him. We feel at peace now sending him to school knowing that people will take care of him and able to handle his behaviors. We are so grateful because of this."
- Veronica Barin
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Making Friends Made Easier

For many students with special needs, the process isn’t as innate and may come with confusion and many bumps in the road. At Port View Preparatory®, our goal is to smooth those transitional bumps with special care and attention through our practical social skills training program. Many students with disabilities demonstrate a strong desire to interact with others and make friends but struggle with reading nonverbal cues and engaging in social interactions. Certain individuals are more likely than their peers to have difficulty with these interactions including:

  • Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders and/or developmental delays
  • Students with learning disabilities (LD), particularly those with nonverbal learning disabilities
  • Students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
  • Students with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD)
  • Students with Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD)

For students who display varying degrees of difficulty socializing, training is necessary and beneficial. Port View Prep teachers and therapists work closely with parents and caregivers to ensure the proper course of social guidance is integrated into your child’s individualized behavioral plan. Our team conducts appropriate social skills training both on campus and in community settings. Field trips and outings are a large part of our social skills training program because they provide students with opportunities to interact with the wider world beyond our campus and/or their immediate families. It’s critical for special needs students to navigate and identify different social situations even for the sake of their own personal safety. Our program not only offers cues on engaging in conversations with peers, but also identifying whether someone who seems friendly is potentially harmful.

There are countless benefits to social skills training and the perceptiveness of students enrolled generally increases dramatically as they progress through the program*. For more information on this valuable Port View Preparatory® offering, please contact Principals Edward Miguel at 714-463-6391 or Melaura Erickson-Tomaino at 714-463-6392.

*Individual results vary.