Social skills and emotional intelligence is a huge determinant in our children’s ultimate success; lack of either will get you fired from a job faster lack of intellect. Metrokids magazine offers a great presentation of my article on identifying these skills and how to take advantage of everyday opportunities to teach them.
Excerpt:
Social and Emotional Intelligence: for children with autism, teaching non-IQ skills must be a priority
It’s all but a certainty that before a child receives services related to his autism through the public school system, he will be subjected to a barrage of evaluations that will include a test of his IQ (intelligence quotient).
More accurately put, this is a test of cognitive and verbal intelligence that will not be standardized to the type of language deficits common to autism. Therefore, many parents will find the results to be a wildly inaccurate reflection of the actual abilities their child demonstrates in “real life.”
It’s likely that much less emphasis will be placed on his social and emotional intelligence. And social and emotional intelligence is very possibly a bigger determinant in your child’s long term success in life than cognitive intelligence.
Read more…
