Did you know? Learning social skills is an important part of health promotion for people with Down syndrome.
Physical, mental, and social health are strongly interconnected. Improving one area of health can improve the others. Similarly, challenges in one area can also cause or contribute to challenges in another area of health. Having positive social interactions can improve our self-esteem, prevent loneliness, encourage us to be more active, and more. Having a negative social interaction can have the opposite effects.
Learning and maintaining social competency is challenging for all of us. The “rules” of appropriate social interactions are often unwritten, can change based on the situation or setting, and usually require abstract thinking. This can be particularly difficult for some individuals with Down syndrome since many are concrete thinkers. Additionally, rules that were learned in school may not apply to work or community settings and/or may need to be reviewed and reinforced.
When we don’t follow the rules appropriately, negative consequences can occur. These may include feeling embarrassed, getting into disagreements with friends, being reprimanded at work, or losing a job, just to name a few. These negative consequences can then affect our mental and physical health.
Unfortunately, we have seen some adults with Down syndrome at our clinic who have lost jobs because of issues caused by a lack of interpersonal skills and social awareness. Losing a job can affect a person's self-esteem and mood. The person may also become more sedentary and less willing to leave the house. Having appropriate social skills may help prevent or lessen the impact of these mental and physical health effects. Thus, we view learning social skills as an important part of health promotion and illness prevention.
If you are interested in participating in social skills groups, please sign up for our email list to get updates about upcoming sessions.
To find videos, visuals, and articles that you can use at home, please see the Social Skills section of our Resource Library.