Your Kids OT
  • HOME
    • Telehealth OT >
      • Wheel Decide
    • Articles >
      • Activities of Daily Living
      • Technology for OT
      • Bilateral Coordination
      • Cognition and Concepts
      • Executive Functioning
      • Fine Motor Skills
      • Gross Motor Skills
      • Handwriting and Writing
      • Homemade >
        • Arts and Craft
        • Kids in the Kitchen
        • Christmas
      • Play
      • Sensory Modulation Skills
      • Social Emotional Learning and Regulation
      • Visual Perceptual Skills
    • YKOT You-Tube Library
    • Direct Therapy Services
  • Blog
  • Shop
  • About
    • Contact >
      • Contact
      • eNewsletter Subscription
  • HOME
    • Telehealth OT >
      • Wheel Decide
    • Articles >
      • Activities of Daily Living
      • Technology for OT
      • Bilateral Coordination
      • Cognition and Concepts
      • Executive Functioning
      • Fine Motor Skills
      • Gross Motor Skills
      • Handwriting and Writing
      • Homemade >
        • Arts and Craft
        • Kids in the Kitchen
        • Christmas
      • Play
      • Sensory Modulation Skills
      • Social Emotional Learning and Regulation
      • Visual Perceptual Skills
    • YKOT You-Tube Library
    • Direct Therapy Services
  • Blog
  • Shop
  • About
    • Contact >
      • Contact
      • eNewsletter Subscription

5 Ways to Promote Social Skills With Children {Guest Post}

1/2/2017

10 Comments

 
Picture
Today I would like to introduce the lovely Fi Morrison from "Mumma Morrison" as a guest blogger to Your Kids OT.  Fi is a mother to a gorgeous baby boy (check out her Instagram feed to meet her bub) and a primary school teacher.  I recently discovered that Fi taught one of my nieces a few years ago! My niece LOVED being in Mrs Morrison's class! Today Fi is helping us with 5 ways to promote social skills with children! This is a timely article with the recommencement of school here in Australia! Thanks so much Fi for writing this article!

I was sitting in my classroom next to Bryan* and Charlie*, helping them with their maths task, when Bryan snatched Charlie's pencil. Charlie started pointing the finger, crying and yelling, saying Bryan had stolen his pencil (which I obviously knew, because I was sitting RIGHT THERE).

Unfortunately, this is a common occurrence in my life as a teacher, and I'm sure it sounds all too familiar to parents and teachers everywhere. What do we do with those children who fight and bicker, who haven't learnt to share or turn take, and overall drive us bonkers with their antisocial antics? (My pet peeve is dobbing. I had students who would say, “SHE LOOKED AT ME” and it would drive me up the wall!).
 
I think many parents, and teachers, assume that social skills are inherent within children, but it is just not that simple. Social skills, like the majority of other skills, need to be taught to children and reinforced. While practice might not make perfect, it surely does make progress.
 
If you have been struggling with social issues with your child at home, or in a social or educational setting, these activities can help to improve their social skills and teach them the right way to deal with particular issues.
 
 
Social stories
Social stories are particularly used by educators for students with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). It is a visual story that describes certain situations or scenarios a child might encounter, and the best way to respond. It is one of the easiest and most effective ways to teach children social skills at home, because it is through the medium of story telling (a family favourite!) that the skills are reinforced.
 
For example, I had a year 2 student, Stacey*, in my class last year who had ASD and Anxiety. To support her transition to year 2, we created a social story by taking photos of our classroom, her peers, meeting spots and play areas around the school for her to be acquainted with, then bound the book into her social story. You could do something similar for a social situation your child struggles with. Take a photo of the situation in the wrong way (for example, pushing someone) and of the right way (standing next to each other, talking). Write captions for the story about the wrong way and the right way (I will not push someone if I don’t like what they say. I will stand next to them, talk to them and say ‘I don’t like what you said’). For older children, you can turn this into a learning activity and create the story together (which goes hand in hand with role plays, see below).

 

Picture
Role Play
Role playing a situation can be a powerful way for your child to understand how someone might react to a situation. For example, if the situation was ‘Someone has said something mean to you’, work through the situation with your child the wrong way (what shouldn’t we do) and the right way (how can we react to that situation). By getting your child to physically act out and verbally respond to each scenario, and playing off the responses you give, your child can see the impact of their words and their actions on other people.
 
With role playing, however, you will need to be mindful of how you act out certain scenarios. Children might find some scenarios hurtful (such as saying something mean), and you don’t want it to escalate out of control. This might give you a lot more teaching than you were expecting! As a teacher, we need to be mindful about the scenarios we ask children to roleplay (for example, peer pressure to do certain things), however it is a helpful medium for children to develop their social skills and understand how their actions and responses affect others.
 
Social Circle
This activity works well with a group of children, and was taught by our Learning Support teacher at school. Children would sit in a circle, and the teacher would ask the children a question about a social scenario (e.g. If the teacher is talking to another student and you want to ask them a question, what do you do?). To monitor the discussion, the teacher would use a soft toy as the ‘talking’ prop, and whoever had the prop could answer the question. The social circle was a great way to promote discussion between peers, bounce ideas off one-another, and extend their thinking in different ways.
 
Puppets
Puppets are absolutely by far one of my favourite educational (and play!) resources ever! They are super fun, engaging for children and can promote learning. I used to run puppet workshops for gifted and talented children, and social skills was one of the biggest benefits I would promote for children who attended the workshop.

Similar to role playing, puppets can be used as an engaging way to act out certain scenarios for children to respond to. However, puppets have two extra benefits:
  1. They are EXTREMELY fun, and children are happy to play with them (sometimes role playing can get a bit much, unless you have an actor in the family!);
  2. They can allow children to disassociate themselves from the scenario (not feel embarrassed or ‘force’ their responses) and may allow them to depict more realistic or interesting responses, allowing for further discussion and teaching points.


Picture
Explicit discussion and modelling
As parents and teachers, we should never underestimate the power of a simple explanation from an adult and our own role modeling of the correct response.I would always reinforce this with posters in our classroom to remind the children after our conversation.

For example, with our dobbing situation, I sat the children down and spoke about when was an appropriate time to speak with me (if someone was hurt or in danger) and when there was a situation they could resolve themselves (someone using the wrong book for class work). After this, I modeled for them how the children could approach me about a situation, and then reinforced it with a display in the classroom.
 
Social skills are vital for children to learn to help them in a variety of social situations. By teaching and practicing these skills at home, as well as in educational settings, your child will develop the necessary social skills to participate in a variety of social settings both during childhood and beyond.

Have you found other ways to develop your child’s social skills?

 
 

Picture
Fi Morrison is a first time mother to a beautiful baby boy, and a mum blogger at Mumma Morrison. She is currently on maternity leave from Primary teaching, where she was teaching year 2. Fi is passionate about helping children learn and grow, as well as supporting new mums in their motherhood journey. You can find Fi at:
www.mummamorrison.com
www.facebook.com/mummamorrison
www.instagram.com/mummamorrison

You may also like:
Picture
Picture
Picture

Your Kids OT © 2021, All Rights Reserved
ABN: 84803478584

AHPRA OT REGISTRATION # OCC 0001765196
www.yourkidsot.com

10 Comments
Fi Morrison link
1/2/2017 09:15:36 pm

Thanks for sharing my post Cindy :) Was great fun to write - anything with puppets I love ;)

Reply
Cindy@YKOT link
3/2/2017 09:10:45 pm

Thank you for a wonderful article!

Reply
the How-to Guru link
1/2/2017 11:35:20 pm

You are so right. EVeryone loves puppets. Great tips.

The How-to Guru

Reply
Cindy@YKOT link
3/2/2017 09:12:34 pm

Puppets appeal to all ages!

Reply
Suzy @ In the Lyons Den link
2/2/2017 12:10:03 am

Fantastic help! Socialising is such an big thing for children. We found role play was something my kids loved and really helped them with interacting with other kids

Reply
Cindy@YKOT link
3/2/2017 09:17:05 pm

Role play is great!

Reply
Jacq link
2/2/2017 10:49:17 pm

I have found the answer and it's puppets! Aside from the usual conversations at home and playgroups, I think puppet play might help a lot. xx

Jacq
jacqwritesworld.com

Reply
Cindy@YKOT link
3/2/2017 09:18:15 pm

Puppets are fun!

Reply
Ridley Fitzgerald link
4/10/2017 05:10:14 am

I love the tips you have here for helping kids with their social skills. Telling my kids stories about social situations is a great idea! They love stories, so I'm sure that would get through to them. Playing games would also probably help, since they love those too.

Reply
Cindy@YKOT link
4/10/2017 09:06:08 am

Wonderful! Thanks for your comment.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Hi, I'm Cindy and I am an Occupational Therapist. I enjoy working creatively with children to see them reach their potential. Read more about me here.

    Picture
    Picture
    SEARCH THIS SITE

    RSS Feed

    Picture

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014

    Categories

    All
    Acessibility Notes
    Alphabet
    Ask An OT
    Bilateral-coordination
    Bilateral-coordination
    Christmas
    Concepts And Cognition
    Easter
    Evidence Based Practice
    Fine Motor
    Freebie
    Functional Skills For Kids
    Giveaway
    Gross Motor
    Guest Blogger
    Handwriting And Writing
    Homemade
    Interoception
    Kids In The Kitchen
    Lego-challengee27c5a2753
    Meme
    Organisation
    Other
    Ot Profession
    OT Resources
    Pencil Grasp
    Play
    Printable
    Regulation
    Reviews
    Rewards And Motivation
    School
    Scissor Skills
    Self Help Skills
    Sensory
    Social Skills
    Visual-perception
    Visual-perception
    Website Spotlight
    Welcome
    World Ot Day
    YKOT Shop
    Your Kids Therapy Ideas

    Popular Posts

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Visit Your Kids OT's profile on Pinterest.

Join the YKOT e-newsletter!

Subscribe to get our latest content by email and receive

the SHAPE ROADS PRINTABLE NOW!

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription and receive your free printable!

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit

Join our Mailing List!

Subscribe to get our latest content by email and receive

the SHAPE ROADS PRINTABLE NOW as a thankyou!

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription and receive your free printable!

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit
Disclaimer: The information on this site is general in nature and should be used for educational  and entertainment purposes. The activities are safe for most children, however, you should consult an Occupational Therapist or health professional to address specific movement, sensory or other medical conditions.  This blog does not replace formal therapeutic professional advice given by a health professional or medical practitioner.  Reviews and endorsements of products will only be made based on my expertise and personal opinion; and deemed worthy of such endorsement. The opinions shared in sponsored content will always be my own and not that of the advertising company or brand. Content, advertising space or posts will be clearly identified if paid, affiliated or sponsored.  Affiliate links may  be found throughout this website in advertising. This means that if you follow through with a purchase from these links, Your Kids OT will receive a percentage of the sale. Your Kids OT undertakes to meet the requirements of the "Social Media Policy" as published by Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).  Further information about this policy can be found here.

Find me


Follow me

Visit Your Kids OT's profile on Pinterest.
Picture

About me

Author

Hi, I'm Cindy and I am an Occupational Therapist. I enjoy working creatively with children to see them reach their potential. Read more about me here.

Picture
Copyright © 2017 Your Kid OT