Many of you researching the need for support in social communication and/or executive functions are highly trained and skilled and may even be considered gifted in your area of expertise. Perhaps you have landed a great job but find your career stalled. Harder still, you have been told (directly or indirectly) “you don’t work well with others,” or “your team doesn’t trust you to hold up your end,” resulting in a demotion or job loss. The fact is your ability to effectively communicate and manage your time is a major factor in advancing your career, often trumping technical expertise.
Our focus on social communication will support you in the following key areas:
- Nonverbal communication (facial expressions, body language, tone of voice)
- Verbal communication (conversational skills, including active listening, apologizing, asking for clarification, use of indirect communication, effectively expressing work ideas)
- Building and maintaining work relationships (gaining support of co-workers, working cooperatively in groups, getting attention and recognition in positive ways, networking, conflict resolution)
- Self-Advocacy (negotiating compromises, asking for reasonable accommodations)
- Self-regulation/maintaining a listening-ready state
Our focus on executive functions will support you in the following key areas:
- Unpacking challenges unique to you, such as attention issues or difficulty estimating how long a task will take
- Understanding and making use of foundational concepts, for example the power of routines and the impact of how we mentally frame events
- Learning skills such as how to chunk tasks or create a “home” for important items
- Practicing how to routinely evaluate what works and does not work
- Gaining a deep understanding that new skills require repeated practice and learning how to move forward when we stumble