Building relationships is a key component in my Social skills classes. Students need to communicate effectively and learn how to deal with conflicts in constructive ways.
With my younger students I address this is 2 ways. First, we use social stories to learn ways to have a meaningful conversation. This includes describing what a conversation is and what it entails. We discuss appropriate ways to greet people and explain there may be different greetings for our friends vs. teachers and adults. Starting conversations, questions to ask and comments to make are talked about. We discuss things that may be interesting to talk about, how to maintain the topic and how to add new information. Secondly, we learn about the Social Detective and discuss things that "We say" and things that "We keep in our head". When conflicts arise, we use our detective skills to find ways to handle the situation and hopefully avoid it in the future.
With my younger students I address this is 2 ways. First, we use social stories to learn ways to have a meaningful conversation. This includes describing what a conversation is and what it entails. We discuss appropriate ways to greet people and explain there may be different greetings for our friends vs. teachers and adults. Starting conversations, questions to ask and comments to make are talked about. We discuss things that may be interesting to talk about, how to maintain the topic and how to add new information. Secondly, we learn about the Social Detective and discuss things that "We say" and things that "We keep in our head". When conflicts arise, we use our detective skills to find ways to handle the situation and hopefully avoid it in the future.