Why Address Social Skills?
Richard Evans, PhD
evansra@raevans.org
ESC XV -Behavior Conference
9:00-11:30 & 1:00-3:30
Why Address Social Skills?
• Social skills can have a big impact on a child’s
ability to succeed in an academic setting.
• Successful learning requires students to interact
closely with teachers and peers.
• Social competence is linked to peer acceptance,
teacher acceptance, inclusion success, and post
school success.
• The classroom becomes both a training ground
for development of social skills and an arena in
which those skills are put to use.
• School curricula has traditionally been
reserved for the teaching of cognitive skills,
while social skills develop in the hallways and
the schoolyard.
• Some educators say social and emotional
knowledge can be taught in a classroom
setting, and that the benefits can be seen in
better attendance and improved test scores.
• Students who lack adequate social skills are at
a higher risk for academic underachievement,
dropping out of school, lack of friends, and
unsuccessful employment.
• Don't worry that children never listen to you;
worry that they are always watching you. By
Robert Fulghum
The Reason We Teach Social Skills
• Child may not know the appropriate behavior.
• Child may have the knowledge but lack the
practice.
• Emotional responses may inhibit performance
of appropriate behavior.
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Consider the Characteristics of
a Well-Managed Classroom
Students are deeply involved with their work,
especially with academic, teacher-led
instruction.
Students know what is expected of them and are
generally successful.
There is relatively little wasted time, confusion,
or disruption.
The climate of the classroom is work-oriented
but relaxed and pleasant.
Harry K. Wong
What exactly is social skills
Manners and positive interaction with others and approaching others in social
acceptable ways
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asking for permission rather than acting
making and keeping friends
sharing toys/materials
Appropriate classroom behavior work habits/academic survival skills
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listening
attending to task
following directions
seeking attention properly
accepting the consequences of one's behavior
Better ways to handle frustration/anger counting to 10 before reacting
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distracting oneself to a pleasurable task
learning an internal dialog to cool oneself down and reflect upon the best course of action
Acceptable ways to resolve conflict with others
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using words instead of physical contact
seeking the assistance of the teacher or conflict resolution teaming
• Walker (1983) defines social skills as “a set of
competencies that a) allow an individual to
initiate and maintain positive social relationships,
b) contribute to peer acceptance and to a
satisfactory school adjustment, and c) allow an
individual to cope effectively with the larger
social environment” (p. 27).
• Social skills are components of behavior that help
an individual understand and adapt across a
variety of social settings.
• Social skills can also be defined within the
context of social and emotional learning —
recognizing and managing our emotions,
developing care and concern for others,
establishing positive relationships, making
responsible decisions, and handling
challenging situations constructively and
ethically (Zins, Weissbert, Wang, & Walberg,
2004)
Classroom Management
on the First Day of School
1. Make sure your classroom is ready. Teachers who
prepare their classrooms in advance maximize
student learning and minimize student
misbehavior. Readiness is the primary
determinant of teacher effectiveness.
2. Do everything possible to welcome the students
and to make sure that they know where to go
and how to get there on time.
3. Keep in mind that what you do on the first day
may determine how much respect and success
you will have for the rest of the school year.
Effective Teachers
Effective teachers typically have specific
characteristics in common:
1. positive expectations for student success,
2. the ability to manage a classroom effectively,
3. knowledge of lesson design that leads to the
students’ mastery of lessons,
4. the drive to continuously learn about and
grow within the teaching profession.
Harry K. Wong
Example of an Introduction
Welcome to another school year.
• My name is Mr. Wong. There it is on the
chalkboard. It is spelled W-O-N-G and is
pronounced “wong.” I would like to be addressed
as Mr. Wong, please. Thank you.
• I am looking forward to being your teacher this
year. Relax. I have over 30 years’ experience as a
teacher. I am what is called an experienced,
veteran teacher.
Also, I love to teach, and I am proud that I am a teacher. So
relax. You are in good hands this year with me, Mr. Wong.
You are going to have the greatest educational experience of
your life.
We will not only study (subject), but I will also share with you
some life-skills traits that will help you to be successful in
tomorrow’s world.
I can assure you that if you should run into me at the shopping
mall 25 years from now, you will say, “You were right, Mr.
Wong. That was the most memorable, exciting, and
fascinating class I ever had.”
So, welcome!
• Social skills are critical for long term success.
Sometimes referred to as Common Sense or
Emotional Intelligence.
• This is a combination of the ability to understand
and manage one's own emotional state (Intrapersonal Intelligence in Howard Gardner's Frames
of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences) and
the ability to understand and respond to other
people.
• Although social skills include understanding and
using social conventions, it also includes the ability
to understand the "Hidden Curriculum," the ways in
which peers communicate and interact, reciprocity
and the ability to build interpersonal relationships
• Difficulty with social skills, and deficits in
social skills, are found to different degrees
across abilities as well as disabilities.
• Both children with disabilities and children
from low socio-economic groups may not have
extensive understanding of social conventions,
and may need instruction
• Students with disabilities have problems both with acquiring and
applying social skills. They need lots of practice. Successful ways to
learn and generalize social skills include:
• Modeling: the teacher and an aide or another teacher enact the
social interactions you want students to learn.
• Video Self Modeling: You videotape the student performing the
social skill with lots of prompting, and edit out the prompting to
create a more seamless digital recording. This video, paired with
rehearsal, will support the student's effort to generalize the social
skill.
• Cartoon Strip Social Interactions: Introduced by Carol Gray as Comic
Strip Conversations, these cartoons let your students fill in the
thought and speech bubbles before they role play a conversation.
Research has shown that these are effective ways to help students
build social interaction skills.
• Role playing: Practice is essential for maintaining social skills. Role
playing is a great way to give students an opportunity not only to
practice the skills they are learning, but also teach students to
evaluate each others or their own performance of skills.
Teach
• Appropriate greetings depending on
relationships: i.e. peer to peer or child to adult.
• Appropriate and polite ways to make requests
(please) and express gratitude (thanks.)
• Addressing adults.
• Shaking hands.
• Taking turns.
• Sharing
• Giving positive feedback (praise) to peers, no put
downs.
Method
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Describe, explain, and discuss.
Model through demonstration.
Role play.
Give performance feedback and reinforcement.
[McGinnis, E. & Goldstein, A. (1984). Skillstreaming the Elementary School
Child. Champaign, Il: Research Press Company.]
What the Research Says
• Focus on social and emotional learning strategies
that encourage reflection and self-awareness.
• Create opportunities to practice effective social skills
both individually and in groups.
• Adjust instructional strategies to address social skills
deficits.
• Tailor social skill interventions to individual student
needs.
it is important to follow an instructional format for social
skills instruction:
1. Identify the social skill to be taught,
2. Explain the importance of the social skill,
3. Model the skill,
4. Provide examples,
5. Allow for guided practice,
6. Provide opportunities for independent practice, and
7. Continue to monitor student progress (Miller, et al.,
2010).
School Wide
While each school may choose slightly different
school wide procedures, examples include:
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5.
Traveling Through the Building
Attention in Large Groups
Restroom Use
Playground
Taking Care of Classroom and School
A Class Divided
• Elliott divided her class by eye color — those with blue
eyes and those with brown. On the first day, the blueeyed children were told they were smarter, nicer, neater,
and better than those with brown eyes.
• Throughout the day, Elliott praised them and allowed
them privileges such as a taking a longer recess and
being first in the lunch line. In contrast, the brown-eyed
children had to wear collars around their necks and their
behavior and performance were criticized and ridiculed
by Elliott.
• Children who were designated as inferior took on the
look and behavior of genuinely inferior students,
performing poorly on tests and other work
• Displaying poor social skills is likely to get one rejected by others
(other kids don't like them and won't associate with them). Others
work hard to show the new and better behaviors they've been told to
show, but are still rejected by others, perhaps due to past reputation
or maybe because others don't like the awkward and unsure
demonstration of the newly learned behaviors which don't appear
"natural." At other times, our pupils may still fail because they have
difficulty monitoring and controlling their behavior when unexpected
reactions occur. They misread social cues given off by others.
• For example:
– Not noticing the rejection actions by others that nonverbally/verbally say, "Get lost."
– Viewing the positive social forays of others as being
threatening. If rejected because of their behavior (past or
present), they'll rarely-if ever-get the chance to display
the "correct" behaviors under naturalistic circumstances
and fail to incorporate them into their behavioral
repertoire.
• Many of our youngsters never learned "appropriate
behavior" for social setting-situations in which they
must interact/cope with others. Perhaps they did not
receive this guidance in the home, either because of
lack of training by elders or another system of values &
behaviors being taught. Perhaps they did have good
role models in the home and neighborhood who
promoted "appropriate" behavior, but didn't pick it up
as well as most kids, just like some kids learn to read
without formal instruction previous to school, and
some need the structured process of reading
instruction.
Kids will not respond positively to social skills
instruction because they don't see the skills as
being necessary or useful.
For example:
• assisting the teacher
• avoiding conflict with adults
• disagreeing in a non-confrontational manner
The behaviors they display now seem just fine to
them. They obtain the attention, objects or power
they seek.
• Recent efforts at the federal level to improve
school climate and reduce violence have
focused on emphasizing a proactive
disciplinary approach, establishing clear
expectations for students, and supporting
appropriate behavior (Dwyer, Osher, &
Warger, 1998).
• Recent efforts at the federal level to improve
school climate and reduce violence have
focused on emphasizing a proactive
disciplinary approach, establishing clear
expectations for students, and supporting
appropriate behavior (Dwyer, Osher, &
Warger, 1998).
• Federal initiatives seeking to evaluate
interventions directed at reducing youth violence
and its risk factors (Thornton, Craft, Dahlberg,
Lynch, & Baer, 2000; U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, 2001) concluded that
effective school-based programs focus on (a)
increasing positive student behavior through
monitoring and rewards, (b) teaching social/life
skills, and (c) utilizing nonpunitive methods of
control.
• Although the use of reactive and crackdown
tactics have increasingly been applied in
schools to manage challenging behavior,
evidence cited above suggests that efforts to
support pro-social behavior, establish clear
guidelines, and utilize behavior management
techniques are more effective in changing
student behavior.
Questions?