By Janet Price, Director of Admissions and Outreach, CLE Rockville

CLE students at Rockville
CLE Rockville is going on its 11th year of operation. Our Director of Psychological Services, Dr. Scott Hykin, has been here since the beginning! Given his time at CLE, as well as the fact that he oversees social programming at the center, Scott seemed like the perfect person to sit down with and reflect on how we create community here through our student socials. Scott and I talked about how our student socials have evolved over the years, and how they reflect our larger goals of fostering friendships and independence outside the walls of the center.

What are some of the challenges in creating a community among the students and how do socials help to address that?

Many of our students struggle with self-confidence and so they avoid, isolate themselves or otherwise limit their social interactions. In addition, while they might have a lot of interests or great ideas, they find it difficult to initiate and follow through with plans to socialize. So, with the input of our students we schedule and organize social events where initially all they have to do is show up. Facilitated by the staff, students are encouraged to interact and begin to develop a greater confidence and skill set in the arena.

You talked about how our staff facilitates student interaction. I often say that we give our students soft social skills support in the moment. Can you define this further? How does it help our students generalize these skills?

We have two of our staff members accompany the students on each outing, and they act as social coaches for the students through modeling, and encouragement. Students are coached to interact with each other while engaging in the activity. Through the relationships that we build with our students, we can give them subtle signals to adapt their social behaviors to fit the moment. Ultimately our goal is to encourage the students to plan, organize and participate in these very same types of activities without us.

So, creating a community through socials helps students engage authentically with CLE staff, as well as with each other.

Absolutely!

You’ve been here since the center opened. How have you seen socials evolve over time?

The idea has never been for us to be the “entertainment department” of CLE. Rather, we’re seeking fun, exciting and new activities so that the students can challenge themselves socially, with the incentive of having an enjoyable time. Over the years, the community around us has grown—there’s a larger variety of places to explore within Rockville itself, and many within walking distance. It’s also been interesting to watch social trends as they come and go. Last year, Magic the Gathering was extremely popular here. This year, not so much.

What are some of the more memorable socials that you’ve done?

(smiling): Taking the students to an 18 and over dance club, a comedy club featuring a hypnotist who hypnotized some of our students on stage, and karaoke. Karaoke with our students is an amazing experience. Maybe it’s the dim lights, or maybe it’s the music, but every time we do karaoke we see socially inhibited, quiet students come to life with the microphone in front of them