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.