There are eight major goals for this module. Upon completion of this module, you should be able to do the following:
This module will address the following critical questions:
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Regina lives with both her mother and father on the outskirts of a suburb. The neighborhood consists of mostly young married couples and there are only a few children living nearby. Regina is an only child who rides the bus home from school, which has made it difficult for her to be involved in extracurricular activities at school or in the community. When she gets home from school, Regina usually watches television until her parents get home. Often, she will fix her own supper, or her mother will have something prepared for her in the refrigerator. In the evenings, Regina does her homework, reads a book, or talks with her mother and father about the events of the day.
When Regina walks into your classroom, what is she like? Does she have a social network? Does she visit with friends or become involved in class discussions? Does she need assistance learning how to interact with peers, eating lunch at a table with others, or participating in group activities?
While social skills instruction may have been left out of the school day in the past, these interventions are now essential. Many students and their families are facing significant social challenges and schools must be prepared to respond. Social skills education, which may be missing from other areas of a students' life, can be provided within your classroom.
In this lesson, we will describe general strategies for embedding social skills within the curriculum you are already using, discuss how social skills education can address the needs of an individual student, and provide guidelines that will help you design your own social skills curriculum.
Top of Page | Bottom of PageAs a teacher, you have recently been told that a student is moving into the district and is going to be joining your classroom. The only information that you have is that his name is Rickie and he may occasionally display problem behavior. You have been assured that there will be a teaching assistant available to support Rickie. Today is Rickie's first day and you are excited to meet him. When you walk into your classroom, Rickie is sitting in the corner of the room biting his arm. The teaching assistant is pleading with him to stand up and trying to prevent him from biting his arm. The other students are watching Rickie and moving around the classroom talking.
Often teachers feel overwhelmed when faced with challenging situations, but there are a variety of different strategies that can be helpful in supporting students like Rickie. If you were Rickie's teacher, how would you handle the situation? What would you do before Rickie came to your classroom? What information do you have pertaining to Rickie's needs? How would you provide structure in your classroom while supporting Rickie during his transition? Finally, how would you ensure an optimal learning environment for all of your students? With positive behavioral support and crisis prevention planning, Rickie and his classmates can experience a positive social and educational environment.
In this lesson, you will learn about important issues related to crisis prevention including: where crisis prevention fits within positive behavioral support, specific strategies that can be used during a crisis, and guidelines that should be included in a crisis prevention approach. After completing this lesson, you will know what types of strategies can be used to support Rickie and his classmates.
Top of Page | Bottom of PageLincoln, a tenth grade student at an area high school, has been receiving services in special education for emotional and behavioral disorders. He has been referred to the office over sixteen times this semester for outbursts in his classes. His routine follows the same general pattern of behavior.
When Lincoln becomes disruptive in class, he is immediately sent to the office. While he is in the office, the principle provides consequences for Lincoln's behavior. Lincoln becomes observably upset, his face turns red, and he begins sweating. The principle ignores Lincoln's physical reaction to the situation and sends Lincoln back to class.
What are Lincoln's physical cues telling you? How can you respond to Lincoln before his behaviors escalate? How do physical or emotional responses affect Lincoln's understanding of consequences? Acknowledging the importance of these issues can greatly enhance your capacity for understanding why problem behavior occurs.
In this lesson, you will learn about: the types of physiological factors influencing problem behavior, how to identify physiological influences from functional assessment data, and intervention strategies that address the link between physiology and environment.
Top of Page | Bottom of PageEach of the three lessons will include readings to supplement the lesson topic, an outline and notes on the topic, and a glossary. In each lesson will be links to an Activities section, a Directed Questions section and an Assessment section.
In a 3-page paper discuss the importance of observing a student across a variety of social situations, classrooms, and other settings when a student's behavior may be related to physiological influences. Why is teaching social skills in school important?