It covers everything you need to know to have a healthy, fulfilling relationship, and it walks you through the whole process, from first meeting to first kiss to lifelong love story.

It is now the largest section of the guide, with 7 lessons (and an 8th lesson answering reader questions coming soon!). If printed in a physical book, it would be nearly 30 pages long—and I’m so excited to share it with you.

The dating guide is included in membership, so you can become a member today to read both the full dating guide as well as my guides on making friends, meeting people, and more! You can also read a sneak peek of the dating guide by checking out my guest post at The Dating Specialist—it includes an excerpt from the guide.

I hope that with the introduction of the dating section, Improve Your Social Skills will become an even more valuable resource for you on your journey of social skills. Good luck!

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In a recent service, my pastor said something incredibly profound, and I want to share it with you.

He said that many people know that it’s good to listen to yourself—you should try to understand and acknowledge the way that you are feeling. (Indeed, my section on empathy talks about this in depth.)

But it’s also good to talk to yourself, because sometimes you need to speak truth to yourself.

Sometimes your emotions will be saying that you are a screw-up or that nothing matters, and you need to speak into that and remind yourself of all the people who love you and all of the good things in your life.

Sometimes your anger will be saying that another person is worth your hate, and you need to remind yourself the answer to anger is not hate but love.

Sometimes your anxiety will tell you that terrible things will happen if you try to accomplish your goals, and you need to tell yourself that your fear is lying to you.

Speak truth to yourself today. You are an incredible, brave, beautiful person, and life holds so much promise for you. Don’t let fear or depression or loneliness or anger blind you to the truth of who you are.

And hey.

Maybe speak truth to someone else, too.

Remind them that you care about them, and tell them about the greatness you see in them. Tell them that you are grateful to have them in your life, and tell them that they matter. Everyone needs to be reminded that they are loved and that they matter, so give that gift to someone today.

And don’t be afraid to ask for that gift from someone else. If you’re feeling weighed down, tell someone you need to talk. If it’s too hard to speak truth to yourself, tell someone else how you’re doing, and ask them to help encourage you.

We all need each other, amigos, and we all belong somewhere. Hold on to the truth of that.

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I think r/socialskills could become both a social skills resource hub and a community for folks on a journey of social skills improvement. I made a post to explain my vision and my hopes for r/socialskills, and I hope you decide to play a part. Cool things are happening there, so swing by and check it out!
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To start you off, here’s an encouraging article showing that kids with autism can greatly improve their social skills, and a thoughtful look at how different families and individuals have been affected by autism. Feel free to share your favorite article in the comments, or your story of how autism has affected your life.

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Of course, even though the interview is over I’m still very happy to answer any questions that you have. So if you’re curious about social skills, Asperger’s syndrome, the guide, or anything else, feel free to ask your questions in the comments of the blog or by emailing me directly. I really do love to hear from my readers, and (as you can see from the interview), I do my best to give good, thoughtful answers.

Thanks to everyone who came out and asked a question, and to those of you who found this site from the interview—welcome!

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I want to cover both the social skills side of dating (like how to meet potential partners, how to let someone know that you are interested, and how to behave on a date) as well as the relationship side of dating (like how to manage conflict, how to have healthy relationships, and how to have good communication in a relationship.)

I’m very excited, because the dating section will be the first full-length section added to Improve Your Social Skills since the site launched in January. Improve Your Social Skills already has a ton of great content, but I’ve got ideas for so much more, and it’s exciting that some of those ideas are finally coming to fruition.

As always, I’m eager to hear your feedback, so please let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestion for the next dating section. Look for this new section in the next 1-3 weeks, and thanks for your support of Improve Your Social Skills!

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I’ll admit, the thought of dedicating a month to listening seems a bit silly (and who gets to decide what month is dedicated to what?) But listening is important stuff.

It’s easy to think that a conversation is about what we bring to the table. We focus on sharing something that is interesting or funny or exciting, in the hopes that it will draw our partner in.

But you know what? A lot of times, people just want someone to listen to them. And if you prove that you care about your partner by being a good listener, they’ll be happy to listen to what you share in return—even if it’s not incredibly funny or exciting.

So take the opportunity this month to work on your listening. There’s different ways you can do this. You can focus on asking good questions that encourage your partner to share. You can be deliberate to root out interruptions—and if you do catch yourself interrupting, apologize and let your partner finish. You can even ask the people in your life to help you be a better listener, and to let you know in a gentle way when you are doing a poor job of listening.

There’s also resources out there to help you improve your listening skills. There is an international listening association (who knew?) that has some worthwhile listening resources. I’m particularly fond of their pdf version of a booklet from the 50s called Listening is a 10 Part Skill. The booklet style is a bit dated, but the advice is well worth a read.

In the comments, let me know your favorite listening tips—or share situations when listening is a challenge for you. And happy international listening month! (Next month is national poetry month, so practice your listening now and you’ll be ready to listen attentively at a poetry reading come April!)

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Oh, and if you are a member, the ads will not show for you. So that’s a nice perk

Update: Nobody seemed to have much issue with the footer ad, so I added a sidebar ad too. I have no plans to put any additional ads on the site, and again, I only want the ads on there if you guys don’t mind. So if you have feedback, if you have feedback, let me know.

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Things have been pretty quiet here recently, but there’s a lot going on behind the scenes. I finished the transition to a new, much more stable host, and I’ve been working on an entirely new section to the guide, as well as some extra member features. I don’t have an ETA on those things yet, but stay tuned because Improve Your Social Skills will get some exciting new content soon That means that if you have any feedback for what new features or content you want to see, now is a great time comment on the blog or send me an email and let me know.

In the meantime, I thought I’d share an Asperger’s satire video that I found quite humorous. Enjoy!

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