Social skills are harder to build than ever, for every kid.
Between screens, remote learning, and over-scheduled days, kids are getting less face-to-face time. Unstructured play, back-and-forth conversation, 'reading the room', these take practice. And most kids are not getting enough practice opportunities.
WHY NOW?
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Your child wants to connect but is not sure how to start or keep a conversation going
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Group situations feel harder than one on one
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They are confident at home but pull back in social settings
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Screen time is easy; real connection takes more effort and the gap keeps growing
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You have tried coaching them at home but you can only do so much on your own
This is a community, not a clinical program.
Our groups bring kids together in a warm, playful setting where social skills develop naturally through real interaction. Every child is welcomed as they are. We support kids who use AAC, low-tech communication, and everything in between. No diagnosis is needed to participate. We work to build a sense of belonging and inclusion across all groups.
How it works
Small groups. Real connection.
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One hour per session
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Max 6 kids per weekend group so every child gets attention
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Weekend and weekday sessions available for ages 4 to 17
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Peer pairings matched thoughtfully through an intake process
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AAC and all communication styles fully supporte
What we are working toward together.
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Your child has a comfortable space to practice connecting with peers in a low-pressure setting
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They are building tools they can carry into school, home, and the wider world
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You feel more informed and less alone in supporting your child's social development
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A team is working alongside your family, not handing you a checklist and sending you home
No diagnosis needed
BCBA, educator and therapist led
Ages 4 to 17
Syosset, Long Island, NY
PDFs for Download
Do you need a flyer for OPWDD? Please the PDFs download below:
Social Skills
Yoga
Curriculum Overview
What We Cover in Four Weeks and the Curriculum Options
Social Skills Groups
Our Social Skills Groups are structured around a simple belief: connection grows best when it starts with genuine interest and shared joy, not compliance. Over four one-hour sessions, children work on the social skills that help friendships take root and hold, always at a pace and in a way that honors each child's individual communication style and comfort level.
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Community Connections through Specialty Tracks. Please review our tracks below. Each track is 4 weeks long and is a total of $600.
Week One: Building Connection and Conversation
Children practice starting conversations around shared interests, taking turns in dialogue, and noticing when a peer is engaged versus ready to move on.
Week Four: Advocating for Yourself and Sustaining Connection
The final session centers on expressing needs and boundaries, problem-solving social misunderstandings, and making a plan to carry a new friendship forward beyond group.
Week Two: Understanding Others' Perspectives
Sessions focus on recognizing that peers may think, feel, or react differently, reading body language and tone, and staying flexible when plans or group activities shift.
Week Three: Navigating Friendship and Group Dynamics
Children practice joining and exiting group activities, working through disagreements or differing preferences, and identifying what makes a friendship feel mutual and good.
Curriculum Overview
What We Cover in Four Weeks
Board Game Mechanics:
A New Four-Week Program
For kids who already love games, this track turns tabletop play into a hands-on study of how games actually work, and then hands them the challenge of building one from scratch as a group. This teaches entrepreneurial skills, negotiation, trading and more!
Week One: Learning Through Play
Children explore a handful of different games together, noticing how turns work, how rules shape what players can do, and what it feels like when a game clicks or drags.
Week Four: Building and Playtesting
The group finishes building their game and plays it together, adjusting rules on the fly as they discover what needs fixing.
Week Two: Comparing What Makes Games Work
The group tries games built around chance, hidden information, resource trading, or negotiation, and talks through which ones feel fun, fair, or frustrating and why.
Week Three: Designing Together
Children practice joining and exiting group activities, working through disagreements or differing preferences, and identifying what makes a friendship feel mutual and good.
Curriculum Overview
What We Cover in Four Weeks
Yoga and Deep Breathing:
A New Four-Week Specialty Track
This track gives kids tools they can carry in their bodies, not just their heads, for staying grounded both inside group and out in the wider world.
Week One: Finding Stillness Together
Children are introduced to simple, accessible poses and breathing basics in a
low-pressure setting, with plenty of room to notice what calm actually feels like in
their own body without any pressure to get a pose "right."
Week Four: Building a Personal Toolkit
Each child puts together their own short sequence of favorite poses and breathing techniques, something they can return to on their own whenever they need it, and the group closes with a shared reflection on what felt most helpful over the four weeks.
Week Two: Breathing as a Tool
The group learns a couple of specific breathing techniques, like slow belly breathing, and practices connecting them to real feelings, so a child can start to recognize when their body is telling them they need a moment to reset.
Week Three: Practicing Together
Partner and small-group poses ask kids to balance, support, and stay patient with one another, turning something physical into a quiet lesson in trust, communication, and taking turns.
Curriculum Overview
What We Cover in Four Weeks
Canva and Social Media Marketing:
A New Four-Week Specialty Track
This track gives teens real design and marketing skills, along with plenty of practice in
feedback, collaboration, and thinking about how other people see things.
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Special Note: 13-17 years old as a Canva account it required. Teens are asked to bring their own laptop or iPad.
Week One: Finding a Voice
Kids get hands-on with Canva basics, exploring templates, images, and text to create their first simple design around something they actually care about, whether that's a hobby, a favorite game, or a cause that matters to them. This week is about comfort with the tool and starting to notice what makes a design feel clear versus cluttered.
Week Four: Building a Mini Campaign
As a final project, the group puts together a short, cohesive set of posts around one shared theme they choose together, dividing up roles and combining everyone's strengths. The track closes with kids presenting their work to one another, practicing both speaking up about their own ideas and genuinely celebrating a peer's.
Week Two: Thinking Like an Audiences
The group looks at real social media posts together and talks through what makes something eye-catching, easy to read, or confusing, building perspective-taking skills by considering how a stranger scrolling past would experience a post differently than the person who made it. Kids then apply what they noticed to their own second design.
Week Three: Creating and Giving Feedback
Each child works on a small content piece, like a flyer, a post, or a short slideshow, and the group practices sharing specific, kind feedback with one another, along with the harder
skill of hearing feedback on their own work without shutting down. Revisions happen right there in the session based on what peers noticed.
"Most kids are missing something really simple. Real friends. Real friendships, built on being known and accepted for who you are. Parents have told me this is what they want most for their child. A real friend who loves them for exactly who they are. That kind of belonging needs a real room, real peers, and the space to just be a kid. That is what we built here."
— Dr. Sarah Heller, Ed.D., BCBA, IBA, LBA-NY
Group parent session (Free)
One complimentary group parent training session runs at the same time as your child's group
Private on-site sessions
One on one parent training available at our Syosset location during and/or outside of group hours
In-home or via Zoom
Private parent training at home or online, scheduled around your availability
Contact Us
Address
125 Michael Drive,
Suite 105
Syosset, NY 11791
Group Hours
Saturday
Session One:
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Session Two:
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Session Three:
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Session Four:
3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
​Sunday
Session One:
9:00 AM – 10:00 AM
Session Two:
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Session Three:
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Session Four:
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM
