Rationale

•  Different Types of Social Skills •  Why don’t our students have them? •  Why don’t students show them after they have been taught?

•  Social Interaction •  Interpersonal •  Problem Solving •  Conflict Resolution •  Communication Skills •  Feelings Identification

•  Never learned “appropriate behavior” • Misread social cues given off by others •  Don’t notice boredom or rejection by others •  View social forays of others as being threatening

• Lack of supervision & training by elders • An alternative value & response system was taught

•  Know (cognitively) what they should do, but don’t have: • Practice • Self-management due to: •  Being overwhelmed by emotions •  Misinterpretation of situational cues

(Social Skills PowerPoint)

•  Do not view skills as being useful in their lives.

•  New actions do not bring equal or better benefits.

•  Display of new behavior is awkwardly performed. Student is unsuccessful. Views initial failure of new strategies as harbinger of future failure.

•  Know what to do, but past interactions finds them objectionable to others. Due to the interpersonal history, they are quickly rejected or rarely given the chance to display their new skills.

•  Under stress, resorts to old patterns of reaction.

(Social Skills PowerPoint)

An Intervention Program By Caroline Keel

School •  The mission of Muncie

Community Schools is to provide a quality educational environment that allows every student to maximize his or her potential and upon graduation, possess the basic skills necessary to be a positive, productive, contributing member of society.

Individual

•  To provide and promote the highest quality of individual growth, self-esteem, and respect for all students.

•  The overall goal for this intervention is to help improve social skills to those students in need of this opportunity.

•  We believe children need to be socially competent to be successful in all aspects of life.

•  We believe that a person who exhibits appropriate social skills has the opportunity to gain and maintain employments and friendships

•  The adolescent period is one marked by many changes in biological and psychological characteristic and in relations with peers, teachers, and counselors.

•  They also have an increase in their cognitive sophistication which

means that school counseling programs can be geared to this higher-level thinking.

(Wigfield, Lutz, & Wagner, 2005)

•  Goal setting, problem solving, and the ability to seek and obtain social support are important for adolescents.

•  Having the knowledge of the different types of support that is

taught from the GOAL program allows adolescents to be able to solve problems more efficiently by seeking the most important types of help.

(Forneris, Danish, & Scott, 2007)

•  Decision making is the most common kind of problem solving as well as an important component skills in solving more complex and ill-structured problems .

•  Helping professionals can start by setting goals for their program, developing, planning, and imagining successful implementation. They can look for opportunities in what first may appear to be obstacles and reframe negative thoughts. Helping professionals can network and share successes with other colleagues as a way to stay encouraged and encourage others who are making even small improvements.

(Brigman & Webb, 2007)

•  Findings suggest that quality interventions and related instructional strategies might:

•  Focus on social and emotional learning strategies that encourage reflection and self-awareness

•  Create opportunities to practice effective social skills both individually and in groups.

•  Adjust instructional strategies to address social skills deficits.

•  Tailor social skill interventions to individual student needs

(Steedly, Schwartz, Levin, & Luke 2008)

•  4-8 students •  Grades 6-8 •  30 minutes long session •  8 sessions once a week for 2 months •  Student will be picked based on teachers and parents opinion

about receiving more lessons to improve the students social skills. •  The sessions will occur after 4 psycho-educational lessons have

already been presented in the classrooms and the social skills did not improve from those lessons.

• Basic Social Interaction Skill • Session 1- Introduction & Revealing Yourself • Session 2- Clue Snooping

• Communication Skills • Session 3- Active Listening • Session 4- Building Friendships

• Conflict Management Skills • Session 5- Negotiate Differences/Compromise • Session 6- Taking Responsibilities

• Team Building Skills • Session 7- Decide on a Solution • Session 8- Candy Reach Game

•  PS:A1.9 Demonstrate cooperative behavior in groups •  PS:A2.6 Use effective communication skills •  PS:B1.1 Use a decision-making and problem- solving model •  PS:B1.3 Identify alternative solutions to a problem •  PS:B1.12 Develop an action plan to set and achieve realistic

goals •  PS:C1.7 Apply effective problem-solving and decision-

making skills to make safe and healthy choices •  PS:C1.10 Learn techniques for managing stress and conflict

Perception Data Outcome Data

•  Bloom, E. L., Karagiannakis, A., Toste, J. R., Heath, N. L. & Konstantinopoulos, E. (2007). Severity of academic achievement and social skills deficits. Canadian Journal of Education, 30 (3), 911-930.

•  Brigman, G., & Webb, L. (2007). Student success skills: Impacting achievement through large and small group work. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, And Practice, 11(4), 283-292. doi: 10.1037/1089-2699.11.4.283

•  Coleman, H. L. K., & Yeh, C. (2008). Handbook of school counseling. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

•  Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., & Pachan, M. (2010). A meta- analysis of after-school programs that seek to promote personal and socials in children and adolescents. Am J Community Psychol, 45, 294-309.

•  Elias, M. J., & Butler, L. B. (2005). Social decision making/social problem solving for middle school students. Champaign, IL: Research Press.

•  Forneris, T., Danish, S. J., & Scott, D. L. (2007). Setting goals, solving problems, and seeking social support: Developing adolescents’ abilities through a life skills program. Adolescence, 42(165), 103-114.

•  Greenberg, K. R. (2003). Group counseling in k-12 schools. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.

•  Harrell, A., Mercer, S., & DeRosier, M. (2009). Improving the social-behavioral adjustment of adolescents: The effectiveness of a social skills group intervention. Journal Of Child & Family Studies, 18(4), 378-387. doi:10.1007/s10826-008-9241-y

•  Steedly, K. M., Schwartz, A., Levin, M., & Luke, S. D. (2008). Social skills and academic achievement. Evidence for Education, 2(3), 1-8.

•  Wigfield, A., Lutz, S. L., & Wagner, A. (2005). Early adolescents development across the middle school years: Implications for school counselors. Professional School Counseling, 9(2), 112-119.