General Social Skills Strategies – Young Children and Early Elementary Clients

Students who have difficulty abstracting social skills or rules from their environment will likely have to be taught these skills specifically and purposefully.  It should not be assumed that the student knows what is expected socially and interpersonally.  Nonverbal cues will have to be identified and taught specifically using a social learning process. 

Instruction should move from explaining to modeling to guided practice, and finally independent practice in various settings, with reinforcement for effort and success.  Ideally, such skills would be taught in a group setting, such as a social skills group. If possible, posters or pictures could also help to make expectations clear.

For example:

• The skills of Listening could involve: eyes looking, ears listening, mouth quiet, hands together, and body still.
• The skill of Worktime could involve: sitting on a chair, and doing a worksheet.
• Calm requires: voice quiet, body still, and hands together.

• A “prompt-request-tell” approach should be used to help your client learn behavioural expectations.  Prompts should follow a hierarchy, and all successes should be immediately praised.  For example:

prompt-request-tell Approach:

■ Prompt: “What are the other children doing?”, “The other children are sitting in the circle.”
■ Prompt: “What should you be doing?”, “You should be sitting in the circle.”
■ Request: “I need you to sit in the circle.”
■ Tell: “You need to sit in the circle.”
■ If necessary, take your client there physically.

• Whenever possible, your client should be provided with social language to help them manage social situations. 
  • For example, they could be taught to communicate how they feel in various situations (“I don’t like it when you ___”, or “I feel sad/angry when you ___”). 
  • They could be given specific words to deal with accidents (“I’m sorry, it was an accident”), and aggressive acts (“I’m sorry, I won’t do it again.”).

• Appropriate behaviour should be rewarded using immediate, tangible, frequent, small rewards that are paired with verbal praise, such as “Thank you,” and “Good job, your client!” 
  • Over time, they should be weaned off the reward system, if this is possible.

• Your client should be given as much opportunity as possible to interact socially. 
  • They should be encouraged to sit as close to the group as possible (perhaps to the side with an educational assistant) to dress near other students, to stand in the middle of lineups, etc. 
  • During these times, your client should be paired with a child who has well-developed social skills.

• Your client should also be taught turn-taking skills in games and activities (e.g., rolling a ball in the gym, tossing sandbags, making puzzles, playing games). 
  • Language, such as “My turn,” and “Your turn,” should be used to help him/her learn this concept. 
  • This skill should first be modeled and reinforced with an adult, then with a child who has good social skills (with adult supervision), and finally with other children in the classroom (with decreasing amounts of adult supervision).