Teaching Social Skills

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• Teaching Social Skills

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Social Skill Lessons . . .

• Teaching students the behavioral skills needed
  to be successful in the school environment.

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What the Science of Behavior Has Taught Us

• Students are not born with bad behaviors.
• Students do not learn better ways of behaving
  when given aversive consequences.
• To learn better ways of behaving, students must
  be directly taught the replacement behaviors.
• To retain new behaviors, students must be given
  specific, positive feedback and opportunities to
  practice in a variety of settings.

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The Power Of Teaching

• If a child doesnt know how to read, we teach.
• If a child doesnt know how to swim, we teach.
• If a child doesnt know how to multiply, we
  teach.
• If a child doesnt know how to drive, we teach.
• If a child doesnt know how to behave, we
  teach? remove? punish?

• Why cant we finish the last sentence as
  automatically as we do the others?

PBIS Philosophy (pbismaryland.org)
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Misbehavior Learning Error

• Students learn appropriate behavior in the same
  way they learn to read through
• instruction,
• practice,
• feedback,
• and encouragement.

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Why Teach Social Skills?

• Behavior management problems are social skills
  problems.
• Academic and social competence are interrelated.
• Social skills curriculum must match the specific
  need.

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Assumptions

• Behavior does not occur in a vacuum it occurs in
  social learning context.
• Social skills are important and can be taught.
• Initially, learning how to teach social skills
  takes time and energy.

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However

• Social skills curriculum must match the specific
  need.
• An ideal curriculum does not exist.
• Basic set of Preferred Teaching Practices
  exists.
• Initially, learning how to teach social skills
  takes time and energy.

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The Far Side by Gary Larson
High above the hushed crowd, Rex tried to remain
focused. Still, he couldnt shake one nagging
thought He was an old dog and this was a new
trick.
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Lesson Steps

• State the focus of the lesson (skill/rule).
• Give the context/setting of the skill.
• State the purpose of the lesson.
• Provide teaching examples.
• Have students practice the skill/role play.
• Provide follow-up reinforcement activities.
• Only teachers role-play non-examples

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After the Initial Lesson

• Practice
• Provide feedback
• Reinforce
• Critical to maintenance and generalization

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Teaching Academics Behavior
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Cool Tool
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Expectation Be Responsible
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(No Transcript)
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Strategies for Generalization

• Involve others
• Use examples from instructional universe
• Teach general case and skill variations
• Teach self-management strategies
• Teach within and across settings

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School-Wide PBS Guiding PrincipleFocus on
instruction---behaviors are taught

• Directly teach the expected and more socially
  acceptable behaviors.
• Regularly practice the taught behaviors in the
  natural environment.
• Give frequent positive reinforcement that is tied
  to the acceptable behaviors.

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Systems for Teaching Expectations

• Organize a training camp---intensive, first 6
  weeks of school
• Teach a new lesson, every week, all year
• Announce daily the Skill of the Week
• Divide responsibility for writing and
  distributing the weekly social skill lessons
• Distribute lessons to teachers on Thursday to
  plan for the next week
• Keep lessons in a binder in the teacher workroom

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Systems for Teaching Social Skills (cont.)

• Teach skills/lessons in homeroom all other
  teachers reinforce and generalize
• Post Super Skill of the Week
• Tie school-wide spirit celebration to the skill
  of the week (ex silly socks for safety, hats
  off for kindness, show tiger pride, wear color
  and model expectations)

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Embed Social Skills Instruction into Curriculum

• Read literature such as Chrysanthemum
• Write in journal about something the child has
  experienced when following one or more of the
  school rules
• Read relevant books (ex S.E. Hintons Outsiders)
  in language arts
• Study society and rules in social studies and
  government
• Have students and teacher tally own use of
  positive and negative statements in math class
• Perform skits during lunch for younger kids

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Application

• In what ways does the sample expectation lesson
  meet the components of a Cool Tool?

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• What evidence will there be that the students
  ability to demonstrate the expectation has
  improved?

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• How do you think your belief of the expectations
  will influence your teaching of the expectations?

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• What other approaches would you consider for
  helping students understand this lessons
  expectation?