Two different social skills groups?

Post Reply New Topic

Our 4 & 1/2 year old son was recently diagnosed with Aspergers, and we have been starting the process of obtaining therapy through socials skills groups, OT and Speech therapy. Our school district has only offered us a social skills group at this point (apparently with their recent budget cuts, they are required to PROVE that minimum therapy isn't producing results before offering any further services). Unfortunately, their social skills group is rather large - up to 9 kids! Likewise, many of these children will be moving on to kindergarten in another month & our son will have to learn to interract with a whole different group of children after just getting familiar with the first group.

We have also sought services through a local private children's therapy group that accepts our health insurance. He was supposed to be getting OT & speech therapy through this group, as well as a social skills group. This group is much nicer in many ways, but most specifically because the group is 3-4 boys and the group can stay together for many years to come. However, when the therapist in charge of this group heard that he was also attending a group through the school district, she told us that we had to choose one or the other. Her reasoning that she gave was that she "can't track his progress for insurance reporting" if he is attending two similar groups.

So, do we drop the group through the school district & potentially lose out on other services that they may be able to offer in the future, or do we drop the private group even though it seems to be higher quality? I'm going to call the private therapist and offer to pay cash VS submitting for insurance, but I get the feel that it's more of a philosophical protest on her part VS really having anything to do with insurance.

Has anyone else encountered the "only one social skills group" objection? In my mind, since we are working to promote generalization, I would think that multiple groups would actually be beneficial. Am I completely off target here?

Feeling frustrated - sure it won't be the last time!

Lisa

PS. Nice to meet you all, by the way. I've been "lurking" for a month & finally got around to registering!

Hi, and welcome.

The only thing I can think of is that they are keeping data and doing a study on it. They probably don't want to use your son's data if he is in another group because they cannot claim all the professional credit for progress. If they were not charging you, I could see that, but if you are paying for it that seems unreasonable. Their research shouldn't be your problem. Working with him at home would affect his progress, too, but I doubt they consider that variable worth worrying about.

That said, if they have excess demand for his slot, they can do what they want I guess. Did they actually threaten to cut you if you didn't drop the other group? It might be worth a call to your insurance company to see if they could do that. Your insurance company might have rules against that, as I am sure they would prefer you also get additional assistance they do not have to pay for. At the least you could call her bluff about it being an insurance issue, yes?

No idea why they would want you to only do one group - however I wanted to mention that at age um 6 or so my son did a social skills class with kids he never saw again and it was still GREAT. I think the point isn't to make friendships, but is instead to learn and practice skills that transfer to any situation with any other people. There were about 10 kids in his class and two teachers/therapists. So personally I wouldn't be worried about that aspect, him not ever seeing those kids again, if that for whatever reason turns out to be the class you choose. Good luck!

Well, I'm still waiting to hear back from the private therapist. I called our insurance to get more information & found out that she has not submitted ANY claims to them yet & that without any diagnosis codes, they can't give us any details. By the same token, our insurance deductible is so high that I'm probably just going to call her bluff & tell her not to submit to insurance at all. I really do feel like it is a control issue on her part. I spoke to the woman that runs the other group & she says that many of the kids in her groups through the years have attended other groups at the same time & that she has never heard of that objection before.

With that said, the group offered through the school system is about to go on break for 4 weeks, so I think that if the private therapist issues an ultimatum, we will tell her that we are choosing to continue just her group for now, which then gives us a month to make a final decision.

0223: It's reassuring to hear your experiences with a larger & shorter term group. The private therapist stressed to us how superior her groups were because of the small size & long term continuity. We're just so worried about trying to do what's best for our little guy - it's difficult to know what that really IS so often! He really loves both groups & seems to be doing well in both, so I'm hoping that we'll be able to continue them both.

Thanks for you input!

My 2 cents worth and I can only speak from the perspective of my son but I wouldn't put him through 2 social skills groups particularly at such as young age. 2 groups of names and face, rules, possibly contrary info, could all lead to him feeling overwhelmed. I would choose one that I felt suited him better and go with that...

My daughter is a bit older, but she went from a larger social skills group to a smaller one and what I can tell you is that the skills she learned in each was different. In her larger group, I think she learned more about what we would generally call "social skills" but in her smaller group she seemed to learn more about self-regulation and self-management. Both have been beneficial for her.

Since the one group is stopping for 4 weeks, why not just tell her that he is no longer attending the other group and then neglect to mention it when the group starts up again unless she asks about it? I know that seems dishonest, but if it is really only a power issue on her part as you suspect, then I really don't think that her need for control should impact your child's utilization of services.

Well, I still haven't heard back from the private therapist yet (did I mention that she's a bit slow to return phone calls?). We spoke to the therapist in charge of the state-funded group & she is going to look into what the long term consequences would be if we were to refuse the initial services that are being offered. She's very nice & also said that she would have no problems with us just not mentioning her group to the other therapist when the session starts back up. With that said, our son is an articulate little soul who would be very likely to mention something about "my OTHER playgroup at the LIU center".

As far as him being confused by two groups - I definitely worry about the possibility. However, the groups seem to be very different in their structure, which seems to keep confusion to a minimum. The larger group is arranged very much like a preschool, with circle time & snack time, and the social skills seem to be taught in a more school-like fashion with discussion of a topic & then guided "practice" time. The smaller private group seems to be focusing more on imaginative/symbolic group play & encouraging the children to engage in activities where they are required to interact socially in order to obtain the end result/reward that they want (cooperative lego builds, acting out stories with lots of cool props, but where they have to talk & agree on the storyline ahead of time, etc.). The smaller group also seems more likely to address sensory issues when they arise.

Overall, my biggest concern is that we simply don't have many other options for peer interaction for him at this point. We don't have many friends with children close to his age, and a regular preschool really stressed him out & was resulting in several negative behaviors (the preschool was very polite about it, but suggested that he doesn't return until we can arrange a TSS for him). He's had a few positive encounters at local playgrounds, but it's hit & miss since if there are a large number of kids there he ends up overwhelmed & does something inappropriate (deliberately slamming into other children & knocking them off their feet, hugging a smaller child he just met tightly & not letting go till we pry him off, etc.). Playgrounds & other chance encounters are troublesome as well because our son is very large for his age (>95th percentile for height & weight!), so he looks like he should be in first grade, and he acts like a 4 & 1/2 year old with Aspergers! Still not quite equipped to deal with the looks from the other parents yet.

We're hoping to get a TSS (but have been told that it may take a few months to arrange) so that he can go back to preschool, since he really did like it there. We just don't want him to miss out on social interactions until then.