Social Development

Importance• Member of society• Interpersonal relationships• Reciprocal turn taking• Develop cognitive and language skills• Children with developmental delays fail to

recognize social signals or give few appropriate signals

• Acceptable social skills

Social skills & overall development

• Poor social skills

• Rejection & isolation

• No opportunity to learn

• Little positive feedback

• Emotional reactions (more interference than disability)

• Poor social skills

Acquiring Appropriate Social skills

Expectations of the group• Variations/contradictions• Unable to discriminate

Acquiring social skills• Temperament & emotions• Social responsiveness• Impact of developmental problems

*Alternate signals and cues for responsiveness*Overstimulation and

overresponsiveness• Social skills in sequence

Play

• Unoccupied behavior• Onlooker behavior• Solitary play• Parallel play• Associative play• Cooperative playTeaching children to play

• Mastery through play/Fewer play skills• Review choices several times• Peer involvement geared to maximum

success• Gentle insistence

Incidental social learning in Play

Opportunities to promote social learning• Encourage & reinforce interaction• Explain • Promote through play

Affection or friendship trainingSharing & turn-taking (self assertion for children with disabilities)Materials and equipmentImitation & modeling: 1.Arrange the environment 2. Reinforce typical children 3. Reinforce children with delays

Social Skills Needed

• Body basics• Active listening• Greeting• Answering questions• Saying goodbye• Asking questions• Introducing self• Interrupting• Making friends

• Thanks: saying & accepting

• Compliments• Apologizing• Accepting no• Resisting peer

pressure• Responding to teasing• Criticism

• Following instructions

• Getting help

• Joining activities

• Asking for help

• Accepting responsibility

Teacher structured peer interaction

• Teach typical children• Motivate typical children• Ongoing opportunities• Support & reinforce

Creating play environments for children with special needs:• Access: physical entrance to a desired location• Activity: active part once access is provided• Variability: select from a range of options to find a

personally appropriate choice (inclusion)