Groups Help Children Gain Social Skills

Upper West Side’s Team Esteem helps children who have social, emotional, and behavioral challenges through social skills groups, art therapy, and facilitated play dates. Children gain social skills, communication skills, self-esteem, problem-solving skills, and more.

Children participate in a facilitated play date to help boost self-esteem.

Team Esteem, which provides a unique approach to help children who have social, emotional, and behavioral challenges, opened its Upper West Side location in September. “We have a communal approach to working with children who have social, emotion, and behavioral challenges by giving each child a voice to express themselves for every social skill,” owner Jamie Levine says.

Team Esteem’s newest program, the Social Skills Groups for children ages 3-8, were created to help children with social anxiety, ADHD, Asperger’s syndrome, and emotional or behavioral challenges feel more comfortable with social interactions and learn socially appropriate behaviors. Each group has two to six children who work on a structured activity based on their interaction within the group and participate in an open play. Children learn skills including flexible thinking, reading social cues, problem solving skills, and compromising and sharing, identifying their own emotions and the emotions of others in the group, and develop stronger communication skills.

Team Esteem also offers special education itinerant teachers to help students integrate into a classroom, facilitated play dates to further help students integrate into a classroom, art therapy to help children explore and express emotions, and parent and school consulting to create a plan for more effective educational experiences.