INTERVENTION IN SCHOOL AND CLINIC VOL. 38, NO. 5, MAY 2003 (PP. 307–310) 307

Enhance Social and Friendship Skills

KARIN CHURCH, CHARLEEN M. GOTTSCHALK, AND JANE N. LEDDY

Social interactions and friendships in and outside ofschool are important for all students. However, studentswith attention deficit disorder (ADD) frequently engagein behaviors that interfere with their socialization. Hereare 20 ways teachers can enhance the social and friend-ship skills of their students.

Assess students’ mastery of a wide range of social

skills using observations, interviews, rating scales,

and checklists. Identify the social skills thatshould be the focus of instruction, and examine the reasons why skills within students’ repertoires are not performed consistently.

Engage in behaviors and use language that fosters

the belief that all students are valued and accepted

members of the class. For example, use languagethat relates to students’ strengths (“You are agood person. You’re thoughtful and sensitiveto people’s feelings”), rather than their difficul-ties or limitations. Smith, Salend, and Ryan

(2001) offered achecklist that teach-ers can use to evalu-ate their language,as well as guidelinesfor using languagethat can promotestudents’ learning,acceptance, social-ization, and self-esteem.

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2 0 W A Y S T O . . .Robin H. Lock, Dept. Editor

Use children’s literature to teach social skills and

how to establish friendships. Cartledge and Kiarie (2001) and DeGeorge (1998) offeredsuggestions of children’s books that can beused to teach students about social and friendship skills.

Employ social skills instructional programs to

promote positive interactions with others. For example, Jarvis Clutch–Social Spy (Levine,2001) helps adolescents understand the de-mands of social life. A variety of social skillsprograms are available (Elksnin & Elksnin,1998), but teachers need to carefully select the program that addresses their students’unique needs. Programs should also be eval-uated in terms of effectiveness, cost, target

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group and setting, ease of use, instructionalapproach, depth of content, and generalizationand maintenance (Carter & Sugai, 1989;Sabornie & Beard, 1990).

Use videos to explore appropriate social interactions

and promote friendships. The pause and replayfunctions of videos allow students and teachersto view and analyze social situations and planand evaluate responses. Guidelines for usingvideos to teach social skills are available(Broome & White, 1995; Elias & Taylor,1995; Salend, 1995).

Break the cycle of students feeling isolated by

structuring academic assignments that encourage

students to interact with their classmates. For example, students can work together on assignments in cooperative learning groups orin learning centers. When using cooperativegroups, make sure that all students have theopportunity to perform various roles.

Offer rewards that foster positive interpersonal

strategies and encourage social interaction. For example, after students engage in cooperativetasks, praise them and allow them to engage in an activity of their choice for an allotted period of time.

Create a classroom environment that promotes social

interaction among students. For example, deco-rate the classroom with visuals and bulletinboards that address social skills and providestudents with access to age-appropriate mate-rials that they like to use with others.

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Remember that social

skills are culturally based.

Therefore, it is im-portant for teachers to understand and besensitive to the cultur-ally based behaviors of students and use avariety of activities to foster acceptance of individual differences(Salend, 2001). They also can show studentshow to play ethnicgames and encouragestudents to play in diverse groups.

Teach students simple, noncompetitive, enjoyable

games that don’t require a great deal of skill or

language. Ideas for noncompetitive games canbe found on the following Web sites:

http://www.cooperationgames.ca/

http://www.acsamman.edu.jo/~misc/teacher/fullerton/pe.html

http://www.sedl.org/scimath/compass/v01n02/models.html

Help students recognize nonverbal language in social

situations, and introduce them to the conversational

patterns that may occur in a particular setting. Forexample, coaching, modeling, and role playingcan be used to help students acquire the non-verbal and verbal language skills necessary forasking how to be included in a game already inprogress (Cartledge & Kiarie, 2001).

Help students read the clues in social situations, and

teach them about the unwritten rules that guide

social interaction. For example, students canlearn that voice levels and gestures that are acceptable on the playground may not be acceptable in the classroom and practice andvisualize the amount of space required wheninteracting with others by pretending thateach student exists in a bubble.

Make the rules of social situations simple and clear.

For example, teachers can work with students13.

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to establish classroom rules and routines fortransitioning from one activity to another (Salend, 2001) and praise students for comply-ing with the rules. Students can also be maderesponsible for monitoring the rules (e.g., givethem jobs such as maintaining a watch or atimer that can be set as a reminder to assist theclass in preparing for transitions).

Set social behavior goals and acknowledge and

comment specifically on displays of appropriate social

behavior without making comparisons. For ex-ample, after Max and Mary play appropriately,they can be praised with the following state-ment: “You both played well and were verypolite to each other.”

Teach students to reflect on the positive and

negative outcomes of situations and evaluate the

effectiveness of their strategies. For example,after a social activity, students can be asked to respond to the following questions:

• What did you do to get the others to play with you?

• How well did it work?• How do you think the others felt about

your actions? and

• What did you learn from this situation?

Encourage students to develop outside interests as

a way to interact with other classmates. Music,art, drama, dance, athletics, and after-schoolactivities provide natural starting points fordeveloping friendships. Falvey, Coots, andTerry-Gage (1992) have provided a range ofafter-school activities for students of all ages.

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Teach students learning strategies to cope with

problematic social situations. One such strategy is called SLAM:

STOP whatever you are doing, LOOK the person in the eye, ASK the person a question to clarify what he or

she means, and MAKE an appropriate response to the person

(Hallahan & Kauffman, 2000, p. 242).

Encourage students to share peer-related concerns.

Show understanding when students expressemotions such as, “I get so angry and frus-trated when I lose games. It makes me feel so stupid.” Identifying these feelings acknowl-edges the expectations students have for understanding their social successes and ex-presses respect for their unique social needs.

Involve family, students’ peers, and community

members. For example, communicate with families about social skill goals and strategiesfor achieving them and pair students withpeers or adults who will be good role modelsand mentors. Students who do not have successful relationships in school may findthem outside of school (Bos & Vaughn, 1998).

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Obtain additional information about teaching social

and friendship skills. Some useful resources include

• Making Friends (Meyer, Park, Grenot-Scheyer, Schwartz, & Harry, 1993)

• Good Friends Are Hard to Find (Frankel, 1996)

• www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/social_skills/behavior_management .html

• http://ldonline.org/ld_indepth/social_skills/lavoie_quest.html

Persons interested in submitting material for 20 WaysTo . . . should contact Robin H. Lock, College of Educa-tion, Box 41071, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX76409-1701.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Karin Church, MS, is a special education teacher for the Ul-ster County (NY) Board of Cooperative Services (BOCES) andan adjunct professor in the Special Education Program at theState University of New York at New Paltz. She works with stu-dents with emotional and behavioral disorders, including studentswith attention deficit disorder and students with oppositionaldefiant disorder (ODD). Charleen M. Gottschalk, MS, is aspecial education teacher for the New Paltz (NY) Central SchoolDistrict and an adjunct professor in the Special EducationProgram at the State University of New York at New Paltz. Sheholds a National Board for Professional Teaching Standardscertification in the area of exceptional needs and has extensiveexperience supporting students with disabilities in inclusiveclassrooms. Jane N. Leddy, MS, is a general education teacherin the Greenwood Lake Union Free School District and an ad-junct professor in the Special Education Program at the StateUniversity of New York at New Paltz. Her interests include im-plementing inclusionary models to support the learning of allstudents. Address: Karin Church, Department of Educational

20.Studies, SUNY at New Paltz, 75 South Manheim Blvd., NewPaltz, NY 12561; e-mail: KAC513@aol.com

REFERENCES

Bos, C. S., & Vaughn, S. (1998). Strategies for teaching students withlearning and behavior problems (4th ed.). Needham Heights, MA:Allyn & Bacon.

Broome, S. A., & White, R. B. (1995). The many uses of videotape inclassrooms serving youth with behavioral disorders. TeachingExceptional Children, 27(3), 10–13.

Carter, J., & Sugai, G. (1989). Social skills curriculum analysis. TeachingExceptional Children, 21(3), 36–39.

Cartledge, G., & Kiarie, M. W. (2001). Learning social skills throughliterature for children and adolescents. Teaching Exceptional Children,34(2), 40–47.

DeGeorge, K. L. (1998). Friendship and stories: Using children’s liter-ature to teach friendship skills to children with learning disabilities.Intervention in School and Clinic, 33, 157–162.

Elias, M. J., & Taylor, M. E. (1995). Building social and academic skillsvia problem solving videos. Teaching Exceptional Children, 27(3),14–17.

Elksnin, L. K., & Elksnin, N. (1998). Teaching social skills to studentswith learning and behavior problems. Intervention in School andClinic, 33, 131–140.

Falvey, M. A., Coots, J., & Terry-Gage, S. (1992). Extracurricular ac-tivities. In S. Stainback & W. Stainback (Eds.), Curriculum consider-ations in inclusive classrooms: Facilitating learning for all students (pp.229–237). Baltimore: Brookes.

Frankel, F. (1996). Good friends are hard to find. Los Angeles: PerspectivePublishing.

Hallahan, D. P., & Kauffman, J. M. (2000). Exceptional learners (8th ed.).Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Levine, M. D. (2001). Jarvis clutch–social spy. Cambridge, MA:Educators Publishing Service.

Meyer, L. H., Park, H.-S., Grenot-Scheyer, M., Schwartz, I. S., &Harry, B. (1993). Making friends. Baltimore: Brookes.

Sabornie, E. J., & Beard, G. H. (1990). Teaching social skills to studentswith mild handicaps. Teaching Exceptional Children, 22(2), 35–38.

Salend, S. J. (1995). Using videocassette recorder technology in specialeducation classrooms. Teaching Exceptional Children, 27(3), 4–9.

Salend, S. J. (2001). Creating inclusive classrooms: Effective and reflectivepractices (4th ed.). Columbus, OH: Merrill/Prentice Hall.

Smith, R. M., Salend, S. J., & Ryan, S. (2001). Watch your language:Closing or opening the special education curtain. Teaching Excep-tional Children, 33(4), 18–23.