Social Skills

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:

If you would like to download a copy of my social skills notebook to use with your students click on the link below:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Interactive-Notebook-Social-Skills-1761069