Customer Reviews
My 7 Year Old Aspie LOVES this book! 
2008-04-10
My son and I love this book. The stories and photos are highly relevant, and some make my son laugh. He loves to see how the children do the "wrong" thing and then the "right" way, and finds the wrong way highly amusing. HIGHLY recommended!
Excellent resource!! 2007-11-30
I work as a Mobile Therapist/Behavior Specialist and this book is great for teaching social skills not only for children on the Autism spectrum, but any children needing assistance in learning or improving social skills. Parents can also join in!!! The pictures are real and the words are easy to understand. The pictures give a visual, reading the book gives the auditory and the pictures show great social cues and non verbal gestures, along with what the person may be thinking. I highly recommend this book.
A MUST HAVE for any parent with a child with ASD 
2007-11-09
I found this book to be exactly what we needed to help our ASD son understand social behaviours. In particular, when angry or upset, I would show him the picture of the boy in the book who counts to 10, takes 3 deep breaths and 'gets over' the incidence quickly, instead of sulking for hours about it!!! It has GREAT examples of everyday interactions with peers as well as teachers/ adults for him to best understand. ALthough he is verbal, I find a picture sequence really helps it sink in. THe only downside of this book is that some pictures are not as sharp quality.
The Social Skills Picture Book Teaching play, emotion and communication to children with autism 2007-09-06
Fantastic book! Although geared to children with autism, the contents are applicable to teaching social skills to all children. The photos and scripts are clear and to the point, and cover a broad range of situations.
NOT ONLY FOR THE AUTISTIC CHILD BUT FOR ALL WHO ENTER INTO RELATIONSHIPS IN THE CLASSROOM AND OUR WORLD 2007-06-19
This book is designed to discuss with the autistic student effective interpersonal relationships in the classroom environment, with peers, teachers, etc. Nevertheless, I find it works very well with all students, and anyone who must work with human beings on a regular basis in our increasingly alienating society. This work in fact can serve as a portal to ethical and moral theology!
Often in the classroom we encounter a majority of students whose only prior interpersonal relationship has been the electronic babysitters of television broadcasts and violent video games. The negative interpersonal effects of such modern technology has been adequately explored by a wide variety of writers from VP Al Gore's The Assault on Reason to Sister Mary Timothy Prokes's At The Interface: Theology And Virtual Reality. Therefore these student's prior knowledge of effective strategies for interpersonal and human relationships may be more limited than in a pre-cathode ray tube generations.
The amount of violent death, for instance, which our students experience vicariously through their personal technology far out measures what an average child of fifty years ago might have witnessed, while at the same time a modern child has far less opportunity to interact freely with peers and establish positive, fulfilling and rewarding bonds of friendship than in the past. We have raised a generation within individual technological boxes more chilling than anything BF Skinner could have devised, and then we send them forth into the classroom and into the world, and hope they lead happy and successful lives. Let us then give them the tools, through this book, by which they may make positive choices in life.
Therefore, this book explicitly and cleverly leads us to discuss effective strategies for interpersonal relations, and why we should even bother. I now work with immigrant children who for socio-economic and cultural reasons might not have much prior experience of the standard classroom environment, and yet who seem to come with a greater aptitude for adjustment to this new environment than many of the children native to our nation. In any case, this book allows us all to discuss what works and what might not be as effective within our classroom. This book works not only for the autisitc child.
Jed Baker has devised a situational scope and sequence which motivates and involves every child. The photo sequences are very good. My gripes are that they are too small for display to a large group, and they are already labelled correct and incorrect rather than allowing the group to come through discussion and that logical process which leads to learning with retention the correct or more effective strategy.
I would love to see this excellent and useful tool republished in the form of large display cards with the photos and prompts alone, in order to guide a group discussion with a large group of smaller cooperative units. This I would find most useful in the classroom. I understand this book was written and designed for essentially one-on-one work with the autistic student, and that I am unfairly asking a very good and versatile Swiss knife to do the work of a screwdriver and hammer, but that is only because I have managed to use it effectively and could expand on this so easily in the proper format. Then we can all learn how and why to just get along, and work together for the joy and benefit of all in a cooperative and effective society which leads to peace with justice. Am I asking too much here?
Book is Useful for my Autistic Son 2007-05-28
A dynamic teaching tool for children with autism or Asperger's Syndrome, "The Social Skills Picture Book" offers pictures of the right and wrong ways to handle nearly 30 social skills, such as conversation, play, emotion, management, and empathy.
Great resource for older/higher-functioning kiddos on the spectrum 2007-05-26
The pictures and captions throughout this book are a very helpful visual aid to teach social skills and positive interaction. I'm the mom of a 7-year-old daughter with high-functioning autism, and this book has been quite helpful in helping my daughter understand concepts that can be difficult to teach. I don't recommend this book for younger kiddos, however. Even a year or so ago, our daughter would not have been ready for this. One other thing to consider, which the author does point out, is that for some children with autism, it can be counter-productive to point out how *not* to do something because it can unintentionally call attention to/reinforce behaviors that you *don't* want your child to emulate. Our daughter doesn't have a problem with this currently, but if your child does, then I would recommend that you review the book first, get some blank paper and tape over all of the "don't do this" examples, and then just share the positive examples with your child.
Social Skills for the Visual Learner 2007-05-01
My five-year-old son loves this book. He is a very visual learner; the combination of photographs and dialogue bubbles is very appealing. Showing both the "right way" and the "wrong way" helps my son focus on what the page is highlighting. He especially likes the "HINT" at the bottom of some pages. I have put up some posters around the house, inspired by these "hints". He even reads this book on car trips!
The Social Skills Picture Book 2007-01-11
I ordered this book after seeing/hearing Jed Baker at a conference. He was amazing, dead on and running social skills program in NJ (google him). This book gives excellent photos to share with students great for visual learners. I highly recommend this book. Great way to make abstract social behaviors concrete for students.
One of the best social skills books for children w/ autism that I've found so far 2006-11-22
I teach an autistic support class (ages 7-9) and was looking for a simplistic book to work on teaching social skills. I used the book in class the other day and the children were actually somewhat interested in looking through it with me-they really appreciate having things broken down for them. We roleplayed the steps for what to do if someone teases you & will continue to use the book in the classroom. I do agree that the pictures inside the book aren't nearly as engaging as the front cover but I am very happy with my purchase.
