Social Skills help denied again at school - Any alternatives

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Help, looking for any type of online or dvd type material (very visual learner) for a 10y.o. boy with social skills deficits and struggles in school. We've done social group classes in the past but can't afford them due to bad economy/job loss. Looking for something more reasonably priced, preferrably dvd or online, as he seems to receive and process this method better than direct/confrontational or person to person. Any ideas?

I've looked online at possibly "Model Me Kids" but am open for other input or success stories.

Thanks much!

Most instructional books try and "left brain" social skills, which I actually think is the wrong way to do it.

Maybe just a DVD series of a television show where the social interaction in your judgment is largely positive, and then lightly discuss it with your son?

Please Note: I AM NOT A PARENT. But I do live the life of a person on the spectrum.

We have the model me kids videos. I think they are well done and I like how the videoas are set up where you can purchase one with the set of certain skills you might need. We do find it better to practice the skills with our son trying the skills with his sibs. However, finding teh time is always the challenege, so we don't use them nearly as much s we should. You could always purchase only one and see how he likes them before getting any others. We got the ones with older kids in them. The younger ones were too basic for my son.

You might also look into a drama class. I had read in book that this helps with some AS people. I am so not a drama type of person, so I never really looked into that route. However, our school just had parent/teacher day and when I spoke to my son's Language Arts teacher she said that when she has the kids write something in their readers response journals and share it, he seems to be big on giving kids parts in what he writes and directing them to say what he has wrote. I knew he liked to write and was pretty creative with his stories, but I have never seen him work on play type of stuff. I was pretty surprised, so perhaps it is something to look into.

Both my DH and I were Drama majors and any social skills we have probably come from that!

I tried making a list somewhere about prosocial media...it's not the same as classes, but TV did help us as long as we went over it with DS afterwards. Here it is! http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt149954.html

DS made very good progress with this ultra-expensive system: http://www.sst-institute.net/ We were able to get in on a class where they had purchased the system, so we didn't have to pay for it out of pocket...however, the board game isn't too expensive and offers almost the same stuff.

Wow, thanks for all the ideas, I checked out that other thread as well- We'll definitely see what works! (and yes, I also think there SHOULD be more online/dvd ones geared toward right brainers!)

Have you read any of the Michele Garcia Winner books yet?

Is your son receiving speech therapy? Speech therapy is where my son actually received excellent social skills practice, even though they kept calling it all these other technical names. The art of conversation, which is the foundation to other social skills, falls under the overall concept of pragmatic speech. In elementary school, my son practiced give and take conversations in speech class, staying on topic, and noticing special hand signals for when to wrap up his turn talking. In High School the speech teacher is working with him on learning to read the body language of a listener wanting to interject, and so on.

Maybe if you rephrase the request you will get a better response?

i've noticed that my social skills teacher teaches out of a couple books. if you are interested i could have a look at the titles for you.

Aspie, I'd love to hear that - and I'd also love to hear your opinion on the class you're taking, what works for you and what doesn't.

My son gets services because of his AS diagnosis, but when I asked that some specific services be targeted to his ADHD problems I was told I had to get his doctor to write a letter stating that he needed such services. Does your son have a diagnosis? The school may be limited in what they can provide without one.

Sorry I had to wait until Monday for school, but the book is called freaks geeks and aspergers. There is another book about dating but I'd assume you wouldn't be interested in that just yet.

Like DW_a_mom posted, all of our useful social skills work has been done by a SLP, usually under the IEP goal section under pragmatic/receptive/expressive language deficits. Last year, Julian even had lunch "dates" with his SLP, who facilitated interactions. This year he has a friend to eat lunch with!