As adult caretakers, we want our children and students with social challenges to develop positive relationships with peers. To accomplish this goal, we often encourage socially appropriate behaviors and discourage socially inappropriate behaviors. Perhaps a child doesn't understand personal space and stands too close to others during conversations. We decide to teach the child this social skill by reading a book about personal space, watching a video on it, and roleplaying appropriate personal space. After several lessons, the child displays this social skill. We feel so proud of ourselves for teaching the child this new social skill only to be disappointed a couple of days later when we see the child right up in another child's face during a discussion. Suddenly we're feeling unsuccessful and questioning why the child appears to have lost a skill he knew perfectly just days earlier.
Here are some steps that will help you succeed in teaching a child or student new social skills this year:
Write down a measurable goal.
Set up a concise action plan.
Anticipate setbacks that may occur and learn from them.
Monitor progress made.
Celebrate small achievements.
The goals we set for our children or students are similar to our own New Year's Resolutions, they take time. Nobody trained to run a marathon in one day. By small and simple things, great things come into existence. We often have to restart or pivot our goals as the year progresses as well so be patient with your child, or your student, and yourself as you teach new social skills this year.
Source: What New Year's Resolutions Have To Do With Social Skills - Social Communication Specialists. (2013). Retrieved 6 January 2021, from https://socialcommunicationspecialists.com/new-years-resolutions-social-skills/
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