Social Skills Training for Children with Autism
Our Beyond the Bell program builds real friendships through structured, evidence-based ABA social skills training. Small groups. Clinical facilitators. Measurable results.
Is This Right for My Child?
Signs your child may benefit from social skills training
If you have noticed that your child seems to want connection but struggles to find it, you are not alone. Many families come to us not with a clear diagnosis in hand, but with a feeling: something is making social situations harder for my child than they should be.
Social challenges look different at every age. A five-year-old who watches other kids play from a distance and an nine-year-old who talks past his classmates without realizing it are experiencing the same underlying difficulty expressed in different ways. Below are the patterns families most often describe when they first reach out to us.
Early school years
Ages 5 to 7
- Hangs back on the playground even when they clearly want to play
- Struggles to take turns or share during games
- Doesn't notice when someone is upset or uncomfortable
- Pretend play or imaginative games feel confusing or uninteresting
- Has difficulty making or keeping friends their age
- Prefers to play alone even when other children try to include them
Older elementary years
Ages 8 to 10
- Conversations feel one-sided: talks about their interests but doesn't know when to pause or ask questions
- Misses humor, sarcasm, or indirect language and takes things too literally
- Social situations create real anxiety or meltdowns
- Struggles with losing, unexpected changes, or not getting their way
- Teachers mention difficulty in group work or unstructured time
- Has started to express loneliness, or you've noticed them withdrawing
Why early intervention matters
According to the CDC, 1 in 31 children is identified with autism spectrum disorder. Approximately 50 to 75 percent of those children experience significant challenges in social communication. Structured early intervention changes that trajectory.
Child not yet diagnosed? See our evaluation optionsThe Science Behind Social Skills
Why ABA is the gold standard for social development?
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) breaks social interaction into small, teachable steps and reinforces each one, building a foundation where every milestone unlocks the next. Therapists start with joint attention before friendship because that order is not arbitrary: skipping a step creates gaps that show up later.
Embedded in every ABA care plan
Social skills training is a core component of comprehensive ABA care at Behavioral Innovations, not a standalone add-on. Progress is data-tracked from the first session.
Joint Attention
Following someone's gaze or gesture to share interest in an object or event. The prerequisite for all social learning.
Social Referencing
Looking to another person to gauge how to react to something new or uncertain. Builds emotional attunement.
Imitation
Copying the actions of others. The primary channel through which children naturally absorb social norms.
Turn-Taking and Conversation
Initiating, maintaining, and closing exchanges with peers. Only possible once the three earlier skills are stable.
What We Teach
Our curriculum covers 5 core areas
Each area maps to a specific social-communication need. Together they give children the building blocks for real, lasting friendships.
Goals are individualized for every child. A BCBA selects the areas most relevant to your child's current skill level and updates targets as they progress.
Starting and Sustaining Conversations
Moving beyond simple requests to genuine back-and-forth exchanges with peers.
Reading Facial Expressions and Social Cues
Developing skills to interpret non-verbal communication and respond appropriately.
Turn-Taking and Sharing in Play
Laying the groundwork for cooperative interaction with same-age peers.
Understanding Others' Feelings and Perspectives
Building empathy and perspective-taking through guided exercises and real-time feedback.
Managing Frustration and Adapting to Change
Teaching emotional regulation within social contexts so children can recover and re-engage.
"I love Behavioral Innovations. My oldest started in their Beyond The Bell afterschool program and it's been wonderful. The director, Amanda is fantastic and I love all of the therapists. I didn't know what to expect with ABA, but I'm so glad we came here."
Ren H.
Beyond the Bell Sessions
What a session looks like?
Every Beyond the Bell session follows a consistent three-part structure. Consistency reduces anxiety and lets children focus on the social learning itself.
Structured Skill Practice
Therapists introduce or reinforce a specific target skill with clear modeling and guided practice. Initiating a conversation, offering a compliment, or reading a facial expression.
Peer Interaction Activity
Children practice the skill with peers through games, activities, or real-world scenarios. Therapists observe from the background and collect real-time data throughout.
Reflection and Reinforcement
The group gathers to reflect on what went well. Children celebrate each other's progress, building a sense of camaraderie and belonging within the group.
"It has been exciting to watch our clients progress in such a short period of time. This is such a fun and engaging program. I am looking forward to all the skills and friendships that will result from it."
Molly Adams
VP of Clinical Compliance, Behavioral Innovations
After-school timing: Beyond the Bell sessions take place after school, easing your child's transition with a warm, familiar welcome routine each visit.
Measurable Progress
How ABA quantifies social growth?
BCBAs write ABA social skills goals in terms that can be counted, timed, and graphed session over session. When data plateaus, the teaching strategy changes. Every number is a decision point.
Progress is tracked across four dimensions: how often a skill is used, how quickly a child responds, how long they stay engaged, and whether skills generalize to real-world settings.
Frequency
How often a behavior occurs within a defined period.
A BCBA counts how many times your child initiates a greeting during a 30-minute play group or how many peer interactions they start without a prompt. Rising counts show the behavior is strengthening.
Goal
Increase spontaneous greetings and peer initiations.
Latency
The time that elapses between a social cue and your child's response.
If a peer says "want to play?", latency is the gap before your child answers. Shrinking latency means the response is becoming automatic rather than effortful.
Goal
Decrease the delay when a child is asked to join a game.
Duration
How long a behavior is sustained.
Whether your child stays engaged in a shared activity for two minutes or twelve. Longer durations signal tolerance for the give-and-take that real friendships require.
Goal
Increase the length of cooperative play or conversation.
Generalization: The fourth and most important metric
Whether your child can use a skill with different people, in different places, and under conditions never directly taught. Applying turn-taking at home or on the school playground is the ultimate goal of any social skills program.
Real-World Impact
From the clinic to the world
A social skill that exists only in the therapy room is an unfinished skill. Generalization is the ability to perform a learned behavior with different people, in different places, and under conditions that were never directly taught. It is the difference between a child who greets their therapist and a child who greets their classmates.
Generalization Across People
Skills practiced with siblings, grandparents, and unfamiliar peers, not only the BCBA who taught the target.
Generalization Across Settings
Moving structured practice into the park, the grocery store, the classroom, and the family dinner table.
Research across 32 peer-reviewed studies confirms that social skills groups are effective for individuals aged 3 to 22, showing significant improvements in communication and play. Behavioral Innovations builds generalization into every social skills treatment plan from day one.
Start your child's program →Insurance
Most major plans cover ABA-based social skills training
Behavioral Innovations is in-network with most major insurance providers. Coverage applies when ABA is part of a medically necessary treatment plan. Our team verifies your benefits before scheduling.
Common questions
Everything families ask before they enroll.
What is social skills training for autism?
Social skills training (SST) helps children with ASD understand social rules and expectations, improve their ability to interact with others, and develop meaningful relationships. ABA-based SST breaks complex interactions into small, teachable steps that are reinforced through positive feedback.
How does ABA therapy improve social skills?
ABA improves social skills by deconstructing complex interactions into measurable, repeatable steps and reinforcing each one. Behaviors like eye contact, turn-taking, and conversational reciprocity are taught systematically, tracked with objective data, and practiced until they become natural.
What are common ABA social skills goals?
Goals often include initiating play with peers, responding to social cues within a specific time frame (latency), sustaining cooperative play for a set duration, and generalizing these skills to natural environments like school or home. BCBAs write every goal in terms that can be counted and graphed.
What is the best age to start a social skills program?
Our Beyond the Bell program is tailored for children ages 5 and up. Starting during the early school years (ages 5 to 7) is often ideal, as this is when peer-to-peer interaction becomes central to a child's daily routine and academic success. Social skill development is lifelong, so older children benefit as well.
Is social skills training neurodiversity-affirming?
Our social skills training for autism is designed to empower children, not change who they are. We focus on building functional communication and social-emotional reciprocity so children can navigate the world with confidence while maintaining their unique personality and capacity for self-advocacy.
How can I support social skills development at home?
Generalization is the key to successful social communication intervention for ASD. You can support your child by creating teachable moments during family meals or park visits, using the same modeling and reinforcement strategies their BCBA uses in the clinic. Consistent practice across settings is what moves a skill from learned to natural.
Does insurance cover ABA-based social skills training?
Yes. Most major insurance providers cover Applied Behavior Analysis for social interaction when it is part of a medically necessary treatment plan. Behavioral Innovations is in-network with most major payers. Call 855.782.7822 and we will verify your benefits before scheduling.
Enroll in Beyond the Bell
Help your child build real friendships
Our intake team confirms eligibility, verifies insurance, and walks you through next steps. No waitlists at most locations.
- Small groups of 2 to 8 children with clinical facilitators
- Personalized ABA social skills goals for each child
- Data-tracked progress every session
- After-school scheduling at 120+ centers