Learning About Friendship

 

Learning About Friendship

Stories to Support Social Skills Training in Children with Asperger Syndrome and High Functioning Autism

K.I. Al-Ghani
Illustrated by Haitham Al-Ghani 

Description:

Making friends can be a challenge for all children, but those with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) can struggle more than most. This collection of ten fully-illustrated stories explores friendship issues encountered by children with ASD aged four to eight and looks at how they can be overcome successfully.

Key problem areas are addressed, including sharing, taking turns, being a tattletale, obsessions, winning and losing, jealousy, personal space, tact and diplomacy, and defining friendship. The lively and entertaining stories depersonalize issues, allowing children to see situations from the perspective of others and enabling them to recognize themselves in the characters. This opens the door to discussion, which in turn leads to useful insight and strategies they can practise and implement in the future. Each story has a separate introduction for adults which explains the main strategies within it.

This book will be a valuable resource for all parents and teachers of children with ASD, along with their friends and families, and anybody else looking to help children on the spectrum to understand, make and maintain friendships.

Contents:

Introduction.
1. The Dinosaurs: a story about starting school and learning to share. Overview. Story.
2. Spit and Chase: a story about joining in playground games. Overview. Story.
3. Golden Hour: a story about winning/losing, taking turns and managing anger. Overview. Story.
4. Timothy Tattletale: a story about when to tell. Overview. Story.
5. Too Much Thomas the Tank Engine: a story about obsessions. Overview. Story.
6. Ablutions: a story about personal hygiene. Overview. Story.
7. Space Invaders: a story about personal space. Overview. Story.
8. Billy Blunt: a story about using tact and diplomacy. Overview. Story.
9. The Barbie Club: a story about being taken advantage of. Overview. Story.
10. The Beach Ball: a story about jealousy and what makes a friend. Overview. Story.
Appendix: Useful books and resources.

MY REVIEW

Learning About Friendship is an excellent book. My 8 year old son Aiden has high-functioning Autism so this has been perfect for our family. I really appreciated the user-friendly way this book is put together. The social stories included in each chapter were really easy for us to use as-is with our son. It has been so helpful that we actually sent it to school with Aiden for his Aid to use with him as necessary.

The stories are easy to understand and deal with stuff that we deal with daily. The illustrations helped to keep Aiden's attention focused on the story. I highly recommend this book to anyone with a kid on the spectrum.

Thanks so much to Jessica Kingsley Publishers for sending me a review copy of this book.