We had an eventful Autism Awareness Month this past April and we would like to conclude our series with our final post about some of the work Laurel Behaviour Support Services has been up to!

Leilani Llacuna, our Assistant Clinical Manager, recently participated in a podcast through Autism 30 – a web-based channel designed to promote podcasts about issues and services of interest to families on the autism journey. Leilani talks about Laurel’s services, approach, trainings and workshops, success stories, what she loves about her work, and more! So sit back, and have a listen here!

This past Spring, Laurel was also busy facilitating a one week social skills camp where 11 youth with various intellectual disabilities and a wide range of skills learned ways to build and maintain friendships. Based on the PEERS® curriculum, the participants learned various skills such as identifying common interests, having a 2-way conversation, entering and exiting a conversation, appropriate ways of using electronic communication, dealing with teasing and other important social behaviours.

The parents particularly liked the model of the program which included video models and multiple opportunities for roleplays where youth took on the perspective of other people and received feedback from their peers. The youth really enjoyed roleplaying the “bad” examples of social behaviours because they got to point out what was wrong and what they could do better to make and keep friends.

Everyone participated, including some who were generally quiet, which made for a fun and engaging group. Even the few who were not as motivated to start, ended up really enjoying the program and told their parents that they were excited about being at the camp. Most of the parents also attended the parent coaching session on the last day of the camp and were surprised at how much was being taught in one week and were interested in follow-up camps to continue learning more skills. They expressed that they thought the program was really effective and appreciated seeing videos of their son/daughter interacting with their peers and practising the new skills. The facilitators did a great job targeting multiple skills within a short time period and as a result, the youth had the opportunity to become peer models and started applying what they learned in real life situations. One of the greatest things to see was a small group of the participants found common interests and became friends!

We are pleased to be offering two more sessions this Summer! See below for details:

Session 1 – July 4 – 15

Session 2 – August 8 – 19

Time: 1:30pm – 3:00pm

Location: pesWorks Head Office, #307 – 3680 E. Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V5K 2A9

Cost: $350 per session per individual

For more information, please contact us at 778-945-1435 or email [email protected] and check out the poster here (where you will also find information about our posAbilities Employment Service Head Start Camps).