Identifying Core Social Skills to Target

When starting to look at skills to target and in what order they should be placed on our pacing guides, we are able to look at our learner’s social/emotional  IEP goals as well as our school-wide expectations.

• Examples:
  • Turn-taking
  • Waiting
  • Asking for help appropriately
  • Using appropriate language
  • Staying on topic during conversations

Academic Lessons

When my team and I are looking at our pacing guides each year, we now have a habit of adding social skills into one of the columns. Along with an executive functioning focus, or social skills and emotions as a weekly focus, we embed the skills throughout lessons so that we are working on maintenance and generalization of skills. The following are a few ideas taken from our pacing guides and how we are incorporating skills where we can!

Writing

• Writing sentences to go along with pictures that a peer drew
• Journal prompts about social experiences
• Sentence prompts about feelings
• Social Skills Leveled Daily Curriculum BUNDLE
• Positive Behavior Change Workbooks

Reading and Literacy

• Partner reading to practice listening, waiting, and taking turns
• Discuss characters’ emotions while reading.
• Social/Emotional Regulation Workbooks
• Reading social stories:

1. Visual Social Stories: Behavior Set
2. Visual Social Stories: Personal Space Set
3. Visual Social Stories: School Behaviors Set 1
4. Visual Social Stories: School Behaviors Set 2
5. Visual Social Stories: Friendship Set
6. Visual Social Stories: School Behaviors Set 3
7. Behavior Social Story Adapted Book Series

Transitions between lessons or activities

• Calm down activity choices
  • Mindfulness cards
  • Brain break video
  • Calm classroom reading
  • Yoga
  • Meditation 

Use of visuals around the classroom

• Greetings visuals
• Social question visual choices
• Communication boards
• Fringe vocabulary 
• Complimenting Communication Strips
• Social Interactions Task Cards

Independent work

• Behavior work tasks 
• Behavior file folders
• Behavior Task Cards
• Communication Skills: Social Story Adapted Book Series

• Model expected behavior with role-play or visuals.
• Provide visual cues
• Reinforce positive social behaviors 
• Track progress informally
• Celebrate small wins. Progress over perfection! 
• Reflect with students on what was successful and what need to continue to be practiced