Successful social behavior is made up of dozens of mental functions that operate simultaneously. The term “Social Cognitive Deficit” (SCD) refers to weakness in certain social traits that impair a child’s ability to successfully engage with peers and with age-appropriate developmental tasks. Three main clusters of functional abilities make up Social Cognitive Deficits:

• Social Communication: eye contact, reading social cues, understanding other people’s perspective, intuiting unwritten rules of socialization, reciprocal play & conversation skills
• Executive Functioning: impulse control, focus and attention, planning and sequencing behavior, flexibility, transitioning, adapting to change, problem solving
• Sensory Integration and Self-Regulation: over or under-sensitivity to the environment, management of inner tension and anxiety, shifting between mood states, keeping calm, developing age-appropriate emotion coping skills

A child does not need to have a formal diagnosis to grapple with weaknesses in a variety of these traits. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses in the above areas of functioning - in different measures. Even neuro-typical and gifted children in mainstream schools may have trouble in one or more of these areas. 

The child with SCD’s is “wired” in such a way that the parts of the brain responsible for social functioning don’t automatically do their job. When SCD’s profoundly block a child’s ability to function socially or at school, a clinical diagnosis may be warranted. The diagnoses that most often involve Social Cognitive Deficits include: ADHD, PDD, Sensory Integration Disorder, Tourette’s syndrome, learning disabilities, Asperger’s Syndrome and Autism. Each of these clinical diagnoses has unique characteristics, but share weakness or delays in social development and functioning.

Children with Social Cognitive Deficits find it hard to perceive, decipher, or understand social rules or cues and then initiate appropriate behavioral responses. Children with SCD’s may become isolated, rejected, teased, or sad that they don’t know how to connect with peers. They may conflict with peers and get into trouble with authority figures. Over time they are at great risk of developing low self-esteem, depression, and/or social anxiety.

There is hope for children with SCD’s to learn social skills!

Recent advances in brain research have shown that the human brain has plasticity. This means that it is highly adaptable. Other neurotypical parts of the brain that are not impaired by the neurological differences have been shown to adapt and learn how to think through social situations and select effective behaviors.

Social skills groups provide a unique therapeutic environment to overcome SCD’s, by:

• creating physical and emotional safety
• decreasing social anxiety
• providing positive, success-oriented social experiences to instill the motivation to try
• offering direct “remedial” instruction, modeling and role play for social awareness and social skills
• generating opportunities to practice these new social skills with peers – with coaching.

While people with SCD’s may not become “social butterflies”, they are able to consciously think through social situations. They CAN learn to pick the best possible action, words or behavior to successfully navigate social and group interactions. There IS hope.