Coached Playdates

Finding, making and keeping friends can be challenging for many, but especially for children or teens experiencing a disability. XciteSteps developed a program where we match two children of similar ages together and one of our mentors takes them out to do fun activities. The mentor facilitates interaction between the kids or teens when needed, role plays positive social skills and ensures a positive experience for both children. Through these coached but natural playdates children get to practice their friendship skills but receive support when needed.

Ensuring and Measuring Success

Initially each new San Diego family meets with our program director putting together a detailed achievement plan explaining student’s goals which we will be working on during the outings and gathering important information such as triggers and fears. After each outing our social coaches record specific successes or challenges each child had. Parents get feedback on the spot after each activity but also are presented with a more comprehensive evaluation after the 8-week session is complete.

The XciteSteps “Natural Opportunity Model”

When a child enters our program, our director will meet with the parents and if desired any other professionals working with the child to set up an XciteSteps Achievement Plan. This plan details information about the participant, struggles, triggers, goals and objectives we will be working on during involvement in our programs. It will also outline a plan of action put together by our social coaches or mentors who will be working directly with the participant. During our San Diego one on one mentoring or social group activities, our social coaches/mentors have these goals in mind when interacting with your teen. Since all our programs and services are activity and interaction based, natural opportunities for teaching arise. Our mentors and social coaches look for these teaching opportunities and take advantage of the natural situation to coach, role model or modify behaviors. After each session the mentors document important interactions, improvements, and challenges for each child and this data gets highlighted in our performance tracking sheets for parents to view.

POSTED: Tuesday, October 5, 2010