Skills Development
Skills development helps children and teens to identify and cultivate peer-appropriate skills needed to flourish emotionally, socially and academically. While everyone is unique and learns at their own pace, milestones in learning, behaving, speaking and playing exist at each stage of development. These guidelines help parents and teachers ensure their child stays on track. If social development falls behind that of their peers, students can experience negative social, emotional and academic effects.
What is skills development?
Skills Development Services Offered By Maria
Social Skills Training
Social skills training can help children and teens build confidence navigating and building relationships. Parents and children set goals for social skills development and through either individual or specialized group sessions, practice necessary skills to successfully navigate social situations.
Social skills groups are a great way for children and adolescents to build relationships and practice problem solving skills in a supportive group atmosphere guided by Maria. As one of the only specialists offering such groups in the Baltimore-Annapolis area, groups are formed based on client and parent needs and are built to capitalize each member's strengths. If your child is having trouble making and keeping friends, or understanding expected versus unexpected behaviors in various situations, social skills groups can provide them with tools for development and improvement.
To promote social distancing and COVID-19 health guidelines, social skills groups are offered virtually as well as in-person. When held online through a secure portal, a small number of clients interact through video in order to learn and grow together. Similar sessions are held in-person for
Conflict Resolution Skill Development
Conflict is a natural aspect of life and when approached with respect and consideration, finding a resolution often brings people together. However, when the resolution process is not managed in a healthy way, relationships are harmed. Often when stress, emotions and attention are out of balance people struggle to resolve issues in their personal and professional lives. Maria works with clients during one-on-one sessions or in group formats to help cultivate healthy and appropriate approaches to conflict resolution.
Self-Regulation Skill Development
When someone struggles to monitor and control their feelings and behaviors, they often become frustrated with their peers, struggle to build positive connections and experience feelings of isolation. For school-aged children, self-regulation helps them develop skills to refocus their attention on learning and attune to their peer’s social cues. Maria helps clients of all ages identify issues of self-regulation and learn appropriate strategies for improvement using evidence-based approaches.
Executive Functioning Coaching
Closely tied to self-regulation, our executive functioning skills allow us to manage our time, pay attention and keep multiple things in our head. Our functioning ability depends on how we develop this part of our brain, as we are only born with the potential to build executive functioning skills. People with poor and underdeveloped executive function struggle with impulse control, emotional control, planning and organization. As an executive functioning and study skills coach, Maria works with clients of all ages to develop appropriate mental strategies and behavioral tools to improve their skills and control. Whether you struggle in the classroom, in your personal life or in your career, Maria employs evidence based approaches to help clients of all ages build skills.
Study Skills Coaching
As a study skills coach, Maria works with children, teens and adults to develop effective strategies for approaching learning both inside and out of the classroom. While school is challenging for all learners, some students need more help staying on task, problem solving and prioritizing their work. After first identifying weaknesses in aspects of study and learning, Maria can help your struggling student master the skills they need to successfully accomplish school tasks. From note taking strategies to time management and study skills, all students will benefit from building effective techniques.