Group therapy is about improving socialization/interactive social skills. The advantages of group therapies outweigh the chaos of handling a group of children in the same room. In BRIGHT, we segregate children based on their skill set to create groups where each child can benefit from the other.
Advantages of group therapy
- Creates significant development in communication, attention, behavioral modification, and language development.
- Encourages social interaction skills and peer interaction.
- Helps to deal with sensory processing problems.
- It helps children to understand their friends’ behavior patterns, adjust to the environment, and deal with conflicts and negotiation.
- Helps children adjust to distractions around them and still concentrate on their tasks.
- Improves joint attention skills required for a good classroom experience.
BRIGHT group therapy schedule
- Introducing social greeting - Saying good morning or good evening with eye contact and with the name of the other person.
- Introducing names - Creating silly songs to sing out each person's name. It helps the child to associate the name to a face and also for self-realization of their names.
- Brain gym activities - Simple yet very effective exercises focused on improving attention and calming down the children. It is also a good way to promote movement imitation.
- Initiating conversation - Introducing any sentence formation using "I see....", "I hear....", "I touch", and so on. This step usually involves turn taking which improves peer interaction.
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Concept - For each group therapy, we have a theme or idea. Usually, around a festival, we take the festival as a concept and teach them about it. Or, in general, we go with everyday objects, animals, colours, and so on. Under this category, we will work on sentence formation, association, language switch-over, and others. The types of activities vary with the skill level of the children.
A short gap (for snacks, drinks, and a little relaxation).
- Movement therapy - It usually involves any simple game or rhymes to get the children back to the training rhythm. It is also good for reducing fatigue and improving attention.
- Sensory training - Each therapy session will have one sensory development in the focus. For instance, in case of tactile sensory training, we make kids take turns in working with sensory toys, initiating sentences to express inhibition like, "I do not want to touch...", and so on.
The schedule and time needed for each element in a group therapy session depends on the children and it is highly variable. We do not attempt to stick to the schedule to the tee. Our aim is to make sure that each child gets adequate chance and learn something different at the end of the session.
Types of group therapies
- Play-based group therapy – suitable for young toddlers.
- A theme-based group therapy
- Speech initiation group therapy – involves peer-to-peer question initiation, generalizing answers, peer communication, and others.
- Behavior group therapy – for behavior modification, sensory training, and others.
FAQs about group therapy
Q1: Will my child get individualized attention during a group therapy session?
The primary purpose of the session is to prepare the child to focus even when there is no individualized attention.Â
Q2: How many children would be in a group session?
Ideally, a group session needs a minimum of 3 or 4 children. However, the group session can be as big as 15 children.
Q3: How will the therapist handle multiple children at the same time?
Beyond our speech pathologist Dr. Akila Palani, our assistant therapists and trainers handle children. Parents are welcome to join the group too.
Q4: Can parents be a part of group therapy?
In case of an extensive group session, we request parents to accompany the child as it would be easier to handle the entire lot.Â
Q5: Can we know the schedule of the group therapy ahead?
Yes, a detailed list of activities and the advantages of each activity will be shared with the parents.
Q6: How long will the group session last?
Typically, a group session lasts between 60-120 minutes. However, it depends on the group size as we intend to give a chance to each child.
Q7: How often should I opt for group therapy sessions?
If not possible daily, you can opt for once a week. You can see improvement in the targeted social behavior in just three months.
Q8: Are children with high-function autism or severe developmental disorder accepted in group sessions?
Yes, we believe such children would benefit the most from the group sessions.
Q9: What if my child starts to act out during the session?
We expect children to act out as being in a group is a significant and uncomfortable step for them. We have an array of activities to relax all children, and we would also arrange activities that are each child’s favorite to use to calm the children down. If nothing works, we have a few outdoor playground items like slides, toy cycles, see-saws, and others for the parents to take their children out for a short break. We are also surrounded by two good government parks near our center for some fresh air. Just a few minutes of outside time would calm down most children.