Yachad To Present Workshop, “Building Social Skills in Children with Special Needs,” December 9

10 Nov 2008

Dr. Jeffrey Lichtman, National Director of Yachad/NJCD, declared, “Social skills are the single greatest determinant to quality of life and success in life by any measure. It is for this reason that we continue to promote social skills training throughout all of our programming, and why we are so excited to bring these experts from the Yale Child Study Center to our families and professionals.”

Yachad/NJCD is an agency of the Orthodox Union that provides educational and social inclusion programs through its two major components, Yachad, for children and adults with learning and developmental disabilities, and Our Way for the deaf and hard of hearing.

The workshop will include two speakers, Julie Wolf, clinical psychologist, and Mary Jane Weiss, Ph.D, BCBA. Ms. Wolf works at the Yale Child Study Center in New Haven, and is involved in a number of federally and private funded research projects on Autism Spectrum Disorders. Ms. Weiss has published many books on Autism Spectrum Disorders, including “Reaching Out, Joining In: Teaching Social Skills to Young Children with Autism.” She is the Director of Research and Training at the Douglass Developmental Disabilities Center at Rutgers University and sits on the Scientific Council of the Organization for Autism Research. Dr. Lichtman, an expert in social skills training himself, will moderate.

Both speakers will address the following topics:

• Creating effective social skills training programs;
• Teaching age-appropriate social skills;
• Implementing behavioral modification techniques in the home;
• Applying skills learned in diverse environments;
• Providing helpful information, tips, and resources;
• Networking opportunities; and
• Interactive and insightful presentations.

For more information or to register, contact Dr. Michelle Orgel at 212-613-8172 or orgelm@ou.org.