10 Social Skills Activities You Can Do at Home

Try these social skills activities for autism at home — play-based, parent-friendly ideas backed by research, from a BCBA serving Southern Utah.

Social Skills & Development
10 Social Skills Activities You Can Do at Home

The short answer: You don’t need a clinic, a kit, or a perfect plan to help your child build connection — you need a few minutes a day and activities your child already enjoys. A large systematic review found that home-based, parent-delivered interventions showed “no significant difference in treatment effectiveness” compared with clinic-based programs (Pacia et al., 2021). Below are ten social skills activities for autism at home you can weave into ordinary days. These are about building connection on your child’s terms, not “fixing” anything. If you’re an anxious parent reading this at the kitchen table, you’re already doing the work.

Why social skills practice helps — without framing your child as “broken”

Social communication is a core part of how autism shows up, which is exactly why gentle practice can open doors. The CDC describes autism as “a developmental disability that can cause significant social, communication, and behavioral challenges” (CDC). Autism is also common — “about 1 in 31 (3.2%) children aged 8 years has been identified with ASD,” and it is “over 3 times more common among boys than among girls” (CDC). If your family is navigating this, you are far from alone. The goal of social skills activities for autism at home isn’t to make your child act “typical” — it’s to give them more ways to share, connect, and be understood.

1. Turn-taking with a kicked or rolled ball

Start with the simplest back-and-forth there is: a ball. Autism Speaks names turn-taking games like kicking a ball back and forth while narrating “Your turn!” and “My turn!” as a concrete way to practice reciprocity at home (Autism Speaks). The rhythm of give-and-take is the foundation under conversation, and a ball lets your child feel it in their body before any words are required.

2. Build joint attention with shared looking

Joint attention — sharing a moment by looking at the same thing together — is a skill that grows measurably with practice. In a 2024 study of 34 autistic children (mean age 4.79), independent joint attention increased over time while the prompting needed to support eye contact and joint attention decreased; researchers described it as “a low-cost intervention that can be applied in low-resource settings” (Bordini et al., 2024). At home, this can be as small as bubbles: blow one, pause, look at your child, look at the bubble, and let the shared gaze do the teaching.

3. Add social rules to play with board games

Board games turn play into a structured social workout. Autism Speaks suggests using “board games to add social rules to play,” and points to structured games like Uno as ideal because the rules are concrete and repeatable (Autism Speaks). Waiting your turn, watching others, and following a shared rule are all social skills — wrapped in something that feels like fun.

4. Teach a game in isolation, then add a partner

One of the most practical tips for social skills activities for autism at home is to separate the skill from the social pressure. Autism Speaks advises that you “first teach the necessary skill, such as how to play Uno, in isolation, and then introduce it in a social setting with peers” (Autism Speaks). Let your child master the cards or the rules one-on-one with you, calmly, before a sibling or friend joins. Confidence comes first; connection follows.

5. Break big skills into small, teachable parts

When a social goal feels too big, shrink it. Autism Speaks recommends that you “break social skills into small component parts, and teach these skills through supported interactions” (Autism Speaks). “Greeting a friend,” for example, becomes: look up, make a sound or wave, say a name. Teach one piece at a time and celebrate each one. This is the same logic professional ABA programs use — small wins, clearly defined, gently stacked.

6. Use snack time as a low-pressure social group

Mealtimes are ready-made social moments. Autism Speaks describes lunch or snack groups paired with “topic boxes” — small prompts that give kids something to talk about together (Autism Speaks). At your own table, a little box of pictures or favorite things can spark a comment, a question, or a shared laugh. Because your child is already comfortable eating, the social part feels lighter.

7. Try video modeling to read emotions

Video modeling lets your child watch a social situation play out before living it. Autism Speaks lists “video modeling of social situations to read others’ emotions” among its recommended approaches (Autism Speaks). At home, this can be a short clip — even a phone video of you or a sibling modeling “asking to play” — that your child watches a few times. Seeing the steps first makes doing them feel more possible.

8. Practice empathy and perspective-taking

Reciprocity is a two-way street, and it can be taught. Autism Speaks encourages parents to “teach empathy and reciprocity,” explaining that “to engage in a social interaction, a person needs to be able to take another’s perspective and adjust the interaction accordingly” (Autism Speaks). Naming feelings out loud during everyday moments — “Your brother looks sad, see his face?” — plants the seeds gently, without quizzing or pressure.

9. Practice imitation games

Imitation is one of the earliest social bridges, and it’s playful. Autism Speaks includes “motor and verbal imitation practice” among its home strategies (Autism Speaks). Copycat clapping, animal sounds, silly faces, or “do what I do” all teach your child to watch, match, and take a social cue — and they tend to produce a lot of giggles along the way.

10. Don’t stack challenges — keep the social part the easy part

This last one is about kindness as much as strategy. Autism Speaks cautions against asking a child to manage two hard things at once — for example, don’t require conversation while a child with fine-motor difficulty is concentrating on detailed cutting (Autism Speaks). When you want to grow social skills, choose an activity your child finds easy and enjoyable, so the only “new” thing is the connection. A relaxed child is an available child.

How these activities fit into your everyday routine

You don’t have to schedule “therapy time” — the most effective practice often hides inside ordinary moments. Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBIs) combine developmental science with ABA by embedding child-led learning into everyday routines, and parent-mediated NDBIs have been shown to improve social communication and language (NDBI review). In honesty, meta-analyses note these approaches “primarily enhance targeted, proximal skills rather than broader outcomes like adaptive functioning” — meaning they’re excellent for building specific skills like turn-taking and joint attention, and they work best alongside broader, individualized support.

The encouraging part for families across Southern Utah is how well home practice holds up. In that systematic review, roughly 51.2% of targeted skills improved with “very effective or effective” results, comparable to clinic outcomes — and of the studies measuring whether skills carried over to new settings, “over 90% demonstrated complete or partial generalization outcomes” (Pacia et al., 2021). The same body of research identifies parent-implemented intervention packages, Pivotal Response Treatment, the Early Start Denver Model, and JASPER as “established evidence-based practice” for young autistic children. Your living room in St. George can be a genuinely powerful place to learn.

Frequently Asked Questions

What social skills activities can I do with my autistic child at home? Start with simple, play-based, child-led activities: turn-taking with a ball, board games like Uno, snack-time conversation with topic boxes, imitation games, and video modeling. Autism Speaks recommends breaking each skill “into small component parts” and teaching it “through supported interactions” (Autism Speaks).

Do home-based social skills activities work as well as therapy in a clinic? Research is reassuring. A systematic review of 54 studies found “no significant difference in treatment effectiveness” between home and clinic settings, with comparable rates of skill improvement and strong generalization to new situations (Pacia et al., 2021). Home practice works best as part of a personalized, professionally guided plan.

At what age should I start practicing social skills with my child? There’s no single starting line — every child develops differently. The research above involved young children (for example, a mean age of about 4.79 in the joint-attention study), and parent-implemented approaches are well established for early childhood (Bordini et al., 2024; Pacia et al., 2021). At Ryse, we support individuals ages 2 to 65, and it is rarely “too late” or “too early” to build connection.

How do I teach turn-taking and sharing to a child with autism? Make it physical and predictable first. Autism Speaks suggests turn-taking with a kicked ball while narrating “Your turn!” and “My turn!”, and adding social rules through board games (Autism Speaks). Teach the game in isolation until your child is comfortable, then introduce a partner.

What is video modeling, and how do I use it at home? Video modeling means showing your child a short video of a social situation so they can see it before doing it. Autism Speaks lists “video modeling of social situations to read others’ emotions” as a home strategy (Autism Speaks). A brief clip of a sibling asking to play, watched a few times, can make the real moment feel familiar.

When you’re ready, you don’t have to wait

If you’d like a personalized, BCBA-led plan to build on these activities, Ryse ABA Therapy provides in-home and community-based care across Washington County — St. George, Washington, Hurricane, Santa Clara, Ivins, and La Verkin — plus Cedar City in Iron County. Our approach is family-first, play-based, and data-driven, and there is no waitlist — families can start right away (an autism diagnosis and active insurance coverage are required). When we Ryse together, we achieve more. Call us at (385) 549-5656 to begin.

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