Social Communication Group
Our Social-Emotional Communication Group is designed to help children build essential communication and social interaction skills through structured, play-based activities. With a focus on emotional awareness, peer connection, and collaborative interaction, this group empowers children who may find social interactions challenging.
Why Choose a Group?
Group therapy offers children the unique opportunity to practice real-time social interactions with peers, all while under the guidance of our therapists. In this small, supportive setting, children receive both individualized coaching and peer modeling.
Who Is This Group For?
This group is ideal for children who:
- Have difficulty initiating or maintaining conversations
- Struggle to interpret social cues (facial expressions, tone of voice, body language)
- Need help regulating emotions during social interactions
- Would benefit from practicing social skills in a supportive, guided environment
What Happens in a Session?
Each 45 or 60-minute session includes:
- A welcome circle to support transition and connection
- Guided social play using storytelling, role play, and games to practice turn-taking, perspective-taking, and flexible thinking
- A social skills mini-lesson, customized to the group’s needs (e.g., managing frustration, joining play)
- A parent summary at the end of the cycle with home practice tips and progress insights
Level 1
Group Requirements: Children with emerging social communication skills. Participants may use single words, short phrases, or AAC systems. Focus is on foundational social interaction.
Social Communication Group
Location: New Horizons Centre for Autism
Description: This group targets the foundational skills of social interaction for children with emerging communication – requesting, turn-taking, emotion recognition, and asking for help. Sessions are co-facilitated by a CDA and an Instructional Therapist (IT), ensuring every child has adequate support throughout. Facilitated by a CDA under SLP supervision.
Communication Goals: Initiate and respond to greetings with peers and familiar adults; Communicate a want, need, or feeling using available modality (verbal, AAC, or gesture); Participate in back-and-forth exchanges with a peer; Engage in shared group activities
🕒 Session Length: 45 minutes
👥 Group Size: Maximum of 4 children
📆 Frequency: Weekly sessions [8 sessions total]
📆 Date/Time: TBD
💰 $70 per session per child
*no refunds for missed sessions
Level 2
Group Requirements: School-age children and adolescents with social communication needs. Participants should have functional verbal or AAC communication.
Social Communication Group
Location: New Horizons Centre for Autism
Description: This group is designed for school-age children and adolescents who have functional verbal communication but struggle with the social side of language – sustaining conversations, understanding what others are thinking or feeling, reading non-verbal cues, and navigating peer interactions. In each 60-minute session, children work toward two goals – one that challenges their thinking (such as predicting how a peer might feel based on body language, or generating two solutions to a social problem) and one that is concrete and observable (such as using a repair phrase when a conversation breaks down). Facilitated by a CDA under SLP supervision.
Communication Goals: Initiate and sustain peer interaction using conversation strategies; Demonstrate perspective-taking in structured and semi-structured contexts; Recognize and respond to non-verbal social cues; Apply a learned social strategy in a new or less-structured context
🕒 Session Length: 60 minutes
👥 Group Size: Maximum of 4 children
📆 Frequency: Weekly sessions [8 sessions total]
📆 Date/Time: TBD
💰 $55 per session per child
*no refunds for missed sessions
Spots are limited to maintain individualized attention.
Join the interest list to secure your child’s place!