Teaching Social Skills for Autistic Pupils

Teaching Social Skills for Autistic Pupils

This Webinar will provide information on teaching social skills for autistic pupils.  Social skills development is one of the core difficulties for autistic individuals. However, all autistic pupils will not have the same needs and therefore, social skills assessment can help us to know where to start. This Webinar will begin with a brief overview of why social skills development is important for autistic pupils. Then we will examine some available assessments to gain a baseline of needs for social/life skills development. Finally, we will examine some programmes that can be used in school.

Date:                  Wednesday 30^th March 2022

Time:                 7-8pm

Venue:               Online via Zoom

Facilitator:       Dr. Michele Dunleavy

Michele is a faculty member of the Department of Educational Psychology, Inclusive and Special Education, in Mary Immaculate College. Prior to this Michele taught in a number of settings including mainstream primary classroom, special ASD class and special schools. Michele was seconded as an Advisor to the Special Education Support Service (SESS) where she worked with teachers in primary, post primary, special classes and special schools. In addition, Michele worked as a Part-Time and Guest lecturer in a number of Colleges including NUIG, UCC, and Trinity College Dublin. Michele has also presented and published research both nationally and internationally.  Her current research project is in the area of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) and the teaching of social skills and relationship and sexuality education (RSE) for students with ASD. Michele is also Chairperson of the Irish Learning Support Association (ILSA).