Why I should not shout in class...

Why social skills teaching?

We want our children to be able to relate to others and for other's to

respond well towards them.

Right.

When debating this statement with one of my social skills students:
'Why I should not shout in class'
John is 7. I asked the question.
John: Because its too loud
Claire: How will the teacher feel?
John: Sad. No wait... (pause) Angry
Claire: Why is that?
John: Because it's too loud and I'm being too loud

Consider what's invloved in teaching the social skills lesson relating to the statement:
Does he worry about what the teacher thinks of his behaviour? What's his understanding of his peers' perspective? He knows not to shout, and he knows it's too loud, so why does he keep doing it? How can he tell the teacher is both sad and angry? Does he understand and accept there are consequences to his behaviour? Why should/shouldn't he raise his voice to be heard? The list goes on.

In previous sessions, and with John's parents, we established:
1) How John relates to others
2) What difficulties he has interacting
3) At what level is his understanding in relation to his peers

With our list, we then unpick the social skills and rules for each behaviour John has difficulty with, and combining our knowledge of John's:

• Thought processes
• Social and emotional skills
• Flexibility of thought (If I shout in class, then....what will happen?)
• Imagination skills

The we can devise a social skills teaching plan that is effective. (hopefully)

I am certainly not advocating 'normalisation' of our children - the world is full of people who communicate in different ways for a multitude of reasons. Each one of us has our communication difficulties. I am of the opinion that combining flexibility of thought and social rules with imagination will be a help a child's skills in relating to and responding to others.

(You may have noticed that right now I am preparing for the upcoming social skills workshop in October.)
The challenge of producing ideas to help teach social skills is interesting, fun and mindbending! They are like ancient philosophies - the more you think about them, the harder and more complex they get!

'What's the sound of one hand clapping?' is the social skills equivalent to 'Why I should not shout in class'.

Claire.

Ten things you may not know about us....

With an online company, it's hard to show people just how normal and customer-friendly we are. I'm starting to get a bit confused between Faceland, blogs and just how much personal info people really miss out on not meeting us face-to-face here at HT.
Well, we are quite normal. In case you didn't already know......

1) Hometrain is run by husband and wife team Claire and William Whyte.
2) We design and produce all our products here in Ireland.
3) Teaching workshops are part of our main face-to-face contact with our customers.
4) We are developing a series of 5 social skills computer games.
5) We aim to be Ireland's leading social skills resource company.
6) Claire has a social skills group called 'Hello' on Saturdays.
7) Claire is a play specialist and a teacher. She's the writer, illustrator and director.
8) William is the designer, producer, programmer, director and web designer.
9) William can speak Spanish, secretly likes heavy metal and is a bit of tech-head.
10) Claire is expecting baby number two and is quite good at baking cakes.

So I hope that's cleared up a few details - looking forward to meeting any of you who are coming to our social skills workshop on 12th Oct. See you there!

Claire.

Helping Your Child Make Friends

Which Social Skills does your child need in order for them to make friends?

Basic Social skills do not come naturally for many children and as they get older, they might catch up on the academic work, and struggle with the social interaction.

This is the case for many children who attend our social skills group in Meath.

Social skills by their nature are difficult to teach - especially to children who appear to have little motivation to interact with peers (unless they want something....) - so what can you do?

Consider these questions:

Does your child understand what 'friends' are?

Do they know what does 'Hello' means? and we say it?

Can they answer 'What's your name?'

The answer to these questions will give you a place to start.

In our group, we begin with basic 1-word social skills and build from there. You can do th same at home.

Tips to teach basic communication skills:

1) Use 'Hello' and 'Hello (name)' when you meet people. Encourage your child to look at, say or sign 'hello' to someone at least once every day.

2) See if they can remember something about their friend or friends - such as their names, what they are wearing, what they played with at school etc.

3) Practice answering 'what's your name?' - use their name as a prompt with the answer.

These basic questions are the ones many people will be asking your child out and about, or at school. If they can understand everyday questions and reply, it will help build your child's social confidence. When they can make basic social interactions, further attempts will follow.

All of these questions are covered in our social skills game 'Hello' which is designed to teach these skills - take a look at: http://www.hometrain.ie/ 'Hello', free social skills info and printables.

Claire.

'Hello' New Social Skills Game

If you are wondering where we have been over the passed few months, it's all about our new launch!!

We have a brilliant new game called 'Hello' available now. It is the first in a series of 5 interactive games (CD-Roms) designed to help teach basic social skills.

The topics covered are:

Saying Hello, Asking and answering everyday questions: 'What's your name?' and 'How old are you?' There are sections about making friends, games and a teaching resource section of printable games, worksheets and colouring pages.

Kids can easily navigate the game themselves, and at each stage, the 8 characters are interactive.

Please have a look at the demo:

http://www.hometrain.ie/hello

Claire x

Read all about it! Hyperlexia

As a pre-school home tutor, I would normally avoid teaching a child to read, so as they would progress at school and not get 'bored' if they were too far ahead.

However, one child who I have been working with since the age of two, is now 5. We discussed the idea of maybe introducing some basic words prior to school.

That was four weeks ago.

What happened? He could instantly read and remember over 50 words and is now on his third junior reader.

Better than that, we are using this skill to help his speech. He is using a word chart with no pictures to verbally request. For example: 'Can I have', followed by his choice of breakfast, lunch or dinner etc. He is literally 'eating words'.

Written words have opened a new door for this child, his desire to read and make sentences is rapidly improving his speech and general communication. It seems to be exremly grounding, and is helping him make sense of language.

Hyperlexia is the term for this trait, please feel free to share any insights, teaching ideas or experiences you have on this, I would be very interesed.

Claire x

'Hello' Social Skills Summer Group !

Hi everyone,

I have a small number of places left on my Social Skills Summer course called 'Hello' here in Meath. It's a basic verbal interaction group, that if all goes well, I will continue on weekly until December (4-7 years) - we have been beavering away this year and also launching our CDROM called 'Hello' which is our 2010 social skills project, but that's later this Summer.

Anyone interested in testing the programme at home (for free) ??



Check out the site this week for more info and details about the Hello group.
www.hometrain.ie

Oh and by the way, you might notice my name now is Claire Whyte, as I am embracing my newly married name!


Claire x

Two Good Choices

I want to share my favourite approach to problem behaviours. It's easy and straight forward and can be used in almost any situation that may trigger for undesirable behaviour.

We all know about anticeedant, behaviour and consequence as a formula to hypothesise the function of a behaviour. Mainly, problem behaviour is to avoid/escape, or for attention.
It is in the day to day family routine, that most parents experience stress when they are either asking their child to stop what they are doing (computer,t.v.) and do something they don't want to (toilet, put on shoes, coat, eat etc) or trying to encourage them to a task, such as brushing teeth or going to the workroom/classroom.

So here's where Two Good Choices can help.

Giving choices allows the child to feel they are in control of a situation that is usually dictated by us. Taking away the initial trigger for escape-motivated behaviour can be done by offering two choices that they like, such as location, how you are getting there, activity, reward or reinforcer.

For example: A child who does not want to go into the classroom, or up to bed may begin to escape at the mention that it's time to go. Two good choices: Shall we jump or piggy back?

Example 2: Handwashing or brushing teeth. Two good choices: Do you want a Thomas or Aeroplane sticker for brushing your teeth?

Example 3: Working at the table. Two good choices: Do you want to do counting with beads or animals? Do you want to work at the table or easel?

Example 4: Getting dressed. Two good choices: Do you want your blue or green coat? Shoes or runners?
The list is endless.
When a child feels they have some part in decision making, it can immediatley change a situation that may have been difficult.

It works for me, hope it does for you!

Claire.