sensory support service
Social Emotional Development and
Friendships
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www.sensorysupportservice.org.uk
Aims
• To remind us of the importance of social
emotional development and its impact on
academic achievement
• To understand the main issues that can
prevent CYP with VI having a good social
understanding
• To share experiences and learn from each
other
• To understand how you can promote social
emotional development, inclusion within your
role
Social emotional development
• Plays an important role in children’s lives
• Children need healthy social emotional development
to be prepared and ready to learn
• Dynamic interaction between social emotional
development and academic achievement
Activity
• Sim specs
• In a group
• Make an umbrella out of newspaper
What do we want?
• Children and young people who:
– Get on with other children, young people and
adults
– Make friends
– Feel secure and valued
– Explore and learn confidently
– Feel good about themselves (realistic)
– Belong - who are included
– Are independent
What does Social Exclusion mean?
• Not being listened to
• Having no friends
• Finding it difficult to do the kinds of things that
non-disabled people of their age do
• Being made to feel they have no contribution
to make
• Feeling unsafe, being harassed and bullied
(Morris, 2001)
Discussion
• Think of the child or young person you
work with.
• What are their interactions with their
peers like? How do they join in a group
during break / free time?
Children with vision impairment
• Every child is an individual
• Wide range of situations
– Different eye conditions and implications
– Different personalities
– Different family styles / cultures / values
– Different contexts, socio economic status,
etc
• We will learn from each case but need to be
careful not to over generalise
Issues for children with VI
•
•
•
•
•
Less experiences
More time needed
Not so consistent experiences
Limited access to feedback from others
Limited access to what is
happening around them
• Difficulties with social
understanding
Early social interaction with peers
• Young children
spend a lot of time
watching their peers,
• Imitation,
• Offering objects as a
way to initiate
interaction,
• Taking objects.
Play
• Play gives children opportunities to:
– explore the world around them, learn about
objects, what happens when, how things
work, how objects relate to each other, etc
but also:
– Learn about how people think, act and
what they believe
Friends resolving conflict
Conflict situations between friends are less
hostile and friends seem more able to resolve
them.
Friends are more likely to use reasoning and
take account of the other person’s point of view
or feelings.
Issues – at times adults intervening too early
?
• What issues could there be in the
school years?
Social interaction in the school years
• Children continuously develop understanding
of their social world - identity
• Peer culture - access
• Joining in a group – how is it done? And for
the child with VI?
• Fitting in and keeping up – needing adult
support
• Role models and realistic feedback
School years (cont.)
• Locate a friend in the
playground
• Compete at similar levels
• Tend to look for quiet areas
and to interact with adults
• Adults’ view of good
interaction as lack of
physical or verbal abuse
rather than the presence of
positive social interaction
Teenage years and the dreaded
spotlight
• Move to secondary school
• Self awareness
• Organisational issues - so much to take in and at a
fast pace
• Changing rules - (e.g. hands up)
• Time spent in trying to fit in, making sure
you do not stick out - spotlight
Bullying
Most bullying takes place in settings that are not
monitored by teachers.
Children with special needs are twice as likely as their
peers to be bullied.
–
–
–
–
Be alone at playtime
Male
Having less than 2 good friends
Having extra help in school
Bullying and Friendships
Most helpful factors in preventing or helping pupils in
dealing with bullying are:
- friendships,
- avoidance strategies and
- learning to “stand up for yourself”
Friendship can protect children from bullying to a
certain degree but this depends on the quality of the
friendship and the characteristics of the friend.
?
• What can you do in your role to promote
development in this area?
Promoting development: your role
– Encourage curiosity in other people and
opportunities to enjoy the company of others
– Describe social environment, other people’s
feelings, wishes, intentions and events
– Help peers understand needs of child or help the
pupil explain his or her own needs
– Support communication - but do not speak for the
child
– Ensure child/young person has the independence
skills
Your role (cont.)
• Liaise with teacher for VI about how to
develop child’s awareness of their condition
and to provide training to peers
• Environmental issues: physical layout and
social context (role models)
• Monitoring social interaction and friendships:
– standing back
– promoting independence
Your role (cont.)
• Remember that social skills need to be
experienced in context so there is a need for:
– Using any incidental opportunity to promote social
understanding
– Planned sessions to cover some skills which then
need to be put in practice e.g. to learn about body
posture, active listening, turn taking, staying on
topic, etc.
• Time to discuss issues or learn specific skills
(particularly sensitive issues)
You role (cont.)
• Work as part of the team supporting the child
/ young person
• Circle of friends - using the child’s natural
peer group to support the child
• Social Stories - help children anticipate
situations or reflect on events
• Implementing individual programmes of work