8 Things No One Told Me About Social Skills Training

It goes beyond masking and pleasantries.

It really depends whom you ask. Photo by Nathan Lemon on Unsplash

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There is much debate around the topic of social skills instruction. Who is it for? What should it accomplish? What are the pros and cons? How should we teach? It’s fairly common to see people arguing about just how neurotypical someone can or should be made to behave, as well as whose problem social misunderstandings really is. People disagree on whether there should be rewards, corporal punishment, and whether there is a certain phenotype that benefits most from such a service. Going in, especially later on, I braced myself to be told that I was fundamentally “defective” and going about everything “wrong”. I was also somewhat anticipating the infantilization that has come my way some of the time. However, there are still some inconvenient truths no one, not even other neurodivergent people prepared me for.

1. You will gain an uncomfortable level of clarity regarding the ugliest of power dynamics and feel helpless against their wrath.

This isn’t just abled vs. disabled, neurotypical vs. neurodivergent, clinicians vs. clients, or adults vs. children. It runs…