The ASD Girls’ Conversation Skills Cards

Building on and serving as a companion to Dr Tina Rae’s best selling The ASD Girls’ Wellbeing Toolkit, these cards present a range of user-friendly, practical ideas and strategies to promote and develop the mental health and well-being of girls with autism. They are intended to reinforce and further develop a range of self-help skills and strategies emanating from Positive Psychology approaches whilst also empowering girls to navigate the complexities of social situations – both in and outside of the school context. They are designed to be used flexibly in 1:1 or small group contexts depending upon the vulnerabilities and specific needs of each child/group.

The 60 cards are split into three sections:

Me & My Mental Health
Relationships & Communication Skills
My Toolkit for Wellbeing & Future Health

This resource provides the school-based practitioner with a series of practical and user-friendly activities for use with ASD girls. They include activities designed to support the child or young person in understanding their own feelings and worries and the fact that these are valid but can also be challenged. The need to remember that our feelings are not always facts is key here.

The activities will:

• Promote personal and social skills development
• Develop self-esteem and self-awareness
• Empower the exploration of the many aspects of sexuality and healthy personal relationships
• Encourage personal responsibility for keeping both mind and body safe and healthy
• Address contemporary issues that are relevant to young people, including:
  • develop their understanding of consent in teenage relationships and the ability to recognise safe versus
    potentially exploitative relationships
  • develop an awareness of positive body image, self-respect and aspiration
  • interrogate the media portrayal of young people
  • understand better the effects, risks and legal consequences of the use of psychoactive substances (i.e.,
    legal highs) and performance (e.g., steroids) and image-enhancing substances
• Understand mental health as a concept and the stigma attached to having been given such a label
• Explore the nature of stress and anxiety and understand methods to minimise the impact of these
• Understand the nature of and triggers to self-harming behaviours in young people
• Understand how to maintain mental health using tools from a range of evidence-based therapeutic approaches
  including CBT and Mindfulness