From the Back Cover
For special educators, counselors and other professionals, here is an exciting collection of 187 ready-to-use worksheets to help students in grades 6-12 build the social skills they need to interact effectively with others and learn how to apply these skills to various real-life settings, situations and problems.
All of this instructional material is printed in a big 8 1/4" x 11" lay-flat binding that opens flat for easy photocopying of the worksheets as many times as needed and is organized into two convenient sections:
Part I, SOCIAL SKILLS THAT ARE HELPFUL AND NECESSARY provides 20 complete teaching units focusing on 20 basic social skills—each unit including a rationale for the skill, 5 to 7 illustrated worksheets to introduce and elaborate on the skill, teacher tips, parent pointers, and additional practice activities. The 20 skills include:
- being a good listener
- understanding another's point of view
- Being able to communicate
- negotiating or compromising
- assessing a situation
- "reading" other people
- making a good impression
- controlling your emotions
- revealing yourself to others
- working with others
- making others feel comfortable
- making and keeping friends
- standing up for your beliefs
- having a good sense of humor
- using common sense
- developing a good reputation
- reacting appropriately to peer pressure
- making good decisions
- viewing situations realistically
- being flexible
Part II, SOCIAL SKILLS ACTIONfeatures 75 illustrated reproducible worksheets for teaching students how to apply social skills to real-life situations in each of five different settings: home, school, work, among peers, and in the community. The activities cover routine and unusual situations and can be used in any order after students have complete basic social skills training.
"Social Skills Applied at Home," for example, gives you 15 worksheets covering routine situation like "Getting Along with Siblings" ... problem situations such as "Living with an Abusive or Dysfunctional Family Member" ... and enhancing situations such as "Spending Quality Time Together."
You'll find that the materials in both sections can be easily adapted to whole class, small groups, or individual instruction. And complete answer keys for all worksheets are provided on the accompanying instructor's pages.
In short, this resource gives you a flexible, ready-to-use activities program to help special students learn and then internalize appropriate ways to behave among others. The activities will not only enable them to get along with others, but to control a situation by actively participating and contributing to the social outcome.
About the Author
Darlene Mannix earned a B.S. from Taylor University and an M.A. in Learning Disabilities from the Indiana University. She has taught emotionally and mentally disabled, language disordered, and learning disabled children of all ages and is an active member of the council for exceptional Children. Ms. Mannix is also the author of six other practical resources for special educators published by The Center for Applied Research in Education, including Social Skills Activities for Special Children.
