Social skills are quickly dwindling within the younger generations. The cause? Cellphones, tablets, tv, video games and the internet. All things are good in moderation, and the up and coming generation has not had a lot of moderation when it comes to interacting with these items. The children that will be coming into our classrooms could possibly be lacking in these social skills. We as educators have opportunities to teach social skills within our classroom. Wether we teach them in groups or individually we can help students understanding of socially acceptable behaviors.
We have to realize however, that children come to us from all walks of life. They will all have had different expereinces that shape them into who they are and how they act. Some will also come to us from different cultures, different cultures bring to us different social cues and norms. As an educator it is our job to realize that some kids will have different social skills and that is okay.
For those students who maybe have not been socialized or who simply lack the social skills we have to model for them and allow them to practice the skill for them to learn it. When we take the time to teach social skills that are lacking within teh students, we can better help our classroom management. When we teach students that it is not okay to speak while the teacher is speaking, we are teaching them social skills. When we model for them how to be kind and open doors for other students or teachers we are teaching them social skills.
For the students that come to us that are really struggling there are avenues that we can pursue. For example, the Social Skills Intervention Framework that I did my last blog post on provides students with explicit, indivdualized instruction of social skills that they are missing. Through the intervention we are able to help them gain the social skill and then through practice and modeling we help them integrate the skill into their every day lives. With social skills interventions however, it is important to integrate and tell the parents what you are doing with their parents. When they are educated and informed they are more likely to help integrate and instill the skills they are learning at home.
Miss Trone 