Learning a new social skill
Who is this advice for?
The following resources may be useful for children and young people who are not neurotypical but might be required to learn a neurotypical skill to support them to navigate school, the curriculum or some relationships. Your child or young person might have a diagnosis of autism, be on the waiting list for an autism assessment or associate with being autistic. It might also be helpful for children who present with social communication differences but do not necessarily associate with being autistic.
How will this advice support my child?
We know from listening to the autistic community that social skills training to teach autistic people neurotypical social skills is not helpful in the long term, and can in fact cause harm to mental health.
In an ideal world autistic people and people with social communication differences would be their true selves at all times. However, autistic pupils are living in a world where the majority are not autistic, so there may be times that learning a neurotypical skill may be required to support them to navigate school, the curriculum or some relationships. Some autistic people have asked for more support with this than others. Everyone is different.
The resources in this section aim to support adults around your child to know how to navigate these scenarios.
When might a child or young person need to learn a neurotypical skills?
At the moment, the current school curriculum and examination process are often developed for the neuro-majority. Hopefully this will change over time but there will be instances where info-dumping or frequent topic shifts will not be recognised in an exam as a valid communication style.
For relationships with neurotypical peers, there may need to be a compromise on communication style from both sides, where both people understand/use skills in the style of their peer. For example telling someone they are listening, even if it may not look like it from their perspective.
