TEACHING SOCIAL SKILLS
Social skills play
an important role in determining a child’s
future success in education.
Children who have good social skills learn how to act and react
in certain situations. Social skills enable children to know what is
expected of them in diverse settings, how to make good choices, and how to
treat others in an appropriate manner. Children develop their social
skills from interactions with others and everyday life situations, but it is
important that as educators we teach and reinforce our student’s social skills.
The Results for children who have been taught and who have learned appropriate
social skills can have a positive impact on life. For example, children
who have learned appropriate social skills from their parents and teachers are
more likely to earn a high school and college degree. They are more
likely to have a full time job. The research conducted by Pennsylvania
State University, has proven that social skills can impact the likelihood of a
child living in public housing as an adult or if they will be in a detention
center or arrested as adults. As teachers, it is critical we help our children
become productive individuals as an adult. We can start teaching our
children positive behavioral skills at a very early age.
It is helpful as an educator to
understand the types of social skills we should teach in the classroom.
We can classify the types of social skills to teach into three basic groups.
Survival skills – Survival skills include listening skills,
ignoring distractions, speaking nicely, or positive self talk.
Interpersonal skills- Interpersonal skills include getting along with others, playing with others, sharing, participating in activities, and taking turns.
Problem Solving skills (Conflict Resolution)-
Problem solving skills include apologizing, accepting the consequence
of an action, making good choices, and asking others for help.
One tool I use for teaching social skills is a Social Skills Interactive Notebook.
The students create a personalized notebook using the social skills that the child needs to learn.
Here are some examples the notebooks we create in my classroom:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Interactive-Notebook-Social-Skills-1761069
