The development of appropriate social skills has many components.
Under this SOCIAL SKILLS section, refer to the website for more information on:
- Addressing Self-Esteem and Issues of Fitting In
- Building Your Child’s Self-Confidence
- Self-Concept: How the Child Sees Himself
- Self-Concept: Infants, Toddlers, Preschoolers
- Self-Concept: School-Age Children
- Self-Concept: Adolescents
- Self-Identity and Hearing Loss
- Social Needs and “I hate my hearing aids!”
- See below for Social Skills Area Assessment Considerations
- Also refer to: Social Communication- Pragmatics and Theory of Mind – Implications for Social Success
Look here for worksheets you can use to develop social cognition and recognizing emotions.
App for recognizing song lyrics so kids can be in tune with current music trends:
Social Skills Worksheets Source: MN Department of Education, 7/11/17 Sample worksheets to assist with determining needs or identifying concerns.
- Rules of conversation
- Responding to social cues
- Saying hello/goodbye
- Cooperating by taking turns
- Responding appropriately to questions
- Being sensitive to the feelings of others
- Making eye contact
- Smiling
- Being polite
- Problem solving
- Supporting others/helping
- Having interesting things to say
- Reinforcing and acknowledging other’s comments
- Controlling aggression and inappropriate behaviors
Rules of Conversation
- Don’t always wait for someone to talk to you. EVERYONE needs to take a turn at starting a conversation.
- Start talking to someone – it they want to talk about what you said, they will take a turn.
- Don’t talk, talk, talk – take turns as the talker and the listener
- Pay attention when another person talks to you. Listen so you know when you should take your turn.
- People build a conversation together. Listen to what the other person is saying and add to that topic.
- What you say should be about what the other person just said, unless you are both done with the topic.
- If you don’t understand what the other person said or meant, do not pretend that you did. Ask for clarification.
- Take your turn deciding what to talk about. It is your responsibility to hold up your end of the conversation!
How to be Cool
results of a study with a real group of teenagers tasked with defining COOL. Part of having self-confidence is knowing that you are ‘okay’ even when you receive some negative messages from peers. The How to Be Cool handout lists different aspects of ‘cool’ including speaking up for your self and not being afraid to be different.
Social Communication Styles quiz setting the stage for developing self-advocacy by thinking about communication style
Making a Friendship Sandwich – activity to teach the rules of conversation
Social Skill Areas Definitions and criteria of the 4 social skill areas followed by specific social skill situations for elementary, junior high, and high school for home and school situations. Purpose: to provide a structure for goals and role-playing discussions to practice social skills.
SOCIAL SKILLS AREA ASSESSMENT CONSIDERATIONS
Evaluation needs to be tailored to assess specific areas of educational need (§300.304(c)(2)). Because we recognize that social/emotional development may be an area of need for students with hearing loss, the following section of IDEA is especially relevant:
Part 300 / D / 300.304 / c / 4 (4) The child is assessed in all areas related to the suspected disability, including, if appropriate, health, vision, hearing, social and emotional status, general intelligence, academic performance, communicative status, and motor abilities.
Social Skills Checklists – Source: MN Department of Education. 7/11/17 This checklist is a guide for all teachers of the D/HH and their districts to use with D/HH Children Birth-21. This checklist is a guide/tool for the Teacher of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing.