Nostromos wrote:
[There you go. Early intervention, even though the kids look normal and don't seem handicapped and no one wants to not take their ability to bond with other people for granted. But on the heels of this: It's "special" education, expensive, time-consuming, and its own social stigma.
Actually, the suggested kind of skills training in the article is primarily parent administered (although teachers and other adults could help also) and no more expensive than any other kind of social skills training parents ought to be providing their children with as a matter of course.
From the article
Quote:
Instead of reacting with anger or embarrassment to a child who, say, asks Aunt Mindy if her new hairdo was a mistake, parents should teach social skills with the same tone they use for teaching long division or proper hygiene. If presented as a learning opportunity, rather than a punishment, children usually appreciate the lesson.
Quote:
To teach social skills, Lavoie advises a five-step approach.....
1) Ask the child what happened and listen without judgment.
2) Ask the child to identify their mistake. (Often children only know that someone got upset, but don't understand their own role in the outcome).
3) Help the child identify the cue they missed or mistake they made, by asking something like: "How would you feel if Emma was hogging the tire swing?" Instead of lecturing with the word "should," offer options the child "could" have taken in the moment, such as: "You could have asked Emma to join you or told her you would give her the swing after your turn."
4) Create an imaginary but similar scenario where the child can make the right choice. For example, you could say, "If you were playing with a shovel in the sand box and Aiden wanted to use it, what would you do?"
5) Lastly, give the child "social homework" by asking him to practice this new skill, saying: "Now that you know the importance of sharing, I want to hear about something you share tomorrow."
None of this necessitates special education or any particular stigma or expense.
Quote:
The best thing that could happen is that the parents recognize the problem, and use their knowledge of the child's unique strengths and weaknesses to help them build social skills. But parents are busy and there isn't a lot of time and even intelligent parents won't necessarily succeed in teaching a skill that they've maybe never had to think about.
Which no doubt explains why this kind of research is useful, since it provides a means of discovering the kind of information that we ought to provide parents with, so that they can identify such issues and help to provide their children with social skills in the event a child is not acquiring these in the absence of exceptional support in this area.
05 Feb 2010, 1:30 pm
