Social Skills Practice

June 2, 2019

Social-emotional development is a core focus for our classroom. Knowledge and application of social skills are infused all  day long within both academic and social activities and Mr. Sam and Karlie pull from a number of social skills curricula and books.

Beginning in June, our students will also receive topic based group instruction by our wonderful Social Skills Coordinator Melissa every Monday. Mr. Sam and Karlie will then continue to reference and practice the topic Melissa introduces during specific times each day to ensure the skill acquisition, generalization and maintenance of the new concept or skill.

The drawing here shows a student’s reflection on times they were happy, worried, silly, or frustrated. Often our students are better at recognizing basic emotions in others than in recognizing and labeling their own feelings, especially negative feelings.  We frequently practice labeling and reflecting on our own emotions and work on applying different coping skills when we feel anger or frustration. In addition, a drawing like this may provide an opportunity to discuss how to be silly at the right times.