the indirect method of social skills instruction

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the indirect method of social skills
instruction
LIFESHARE

• Ivor Weiner, Ph.D.
• Associate Professor, Special Education
• Dr. Ashley Skylars SPED 504MM
• April 23, 2008
• 7-10pm
• ED3111
• LIFESHARE is authored by Weiner, Fritsch,
  LaFave (1995, 2000,2002, 2004, 2005, 2006)

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• BEFORE WE GET STARTED
• Apology upfront
• Objectives
• 1. In groups have you analyze a television clip
  and extract social skills for class discussion
• 2. Present the clip and facilitate classroom
  discussion without DIRECTLY addressing the social
  skills

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Proactive School-Wide with FBA as the Last
Resort (Walker et al., 1996) (Specialized,
Weiner, 2003)
Specialized
Family Training / Involvement
Faculty / Staff Training Buy-in
Tertiary Secondary Primary
COMMUNITY RULES AND SELECT SOCIAL SKILLS We are
a community treat each other with respect do
unto others as you would have them do to you
and, be helpful. SELECT SOCIAL SKILLS
Appropriate Greeting, Accepting No for an Answer,
Following the Directions of Staff.
Tier Model adapted from Walker, et al. (1996)
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WHAT ARE SOCIAL SKILLS?

• THE ABILITY TO INTERACT WITH OTHERS IN A GIVEN
  SOCIAL CONTEXT IN SPECIFIC WAYS THAT ARE SOCIALLY
  ACCEPTABLE OR VALUED, AND AT THE SAME TIME
  PERSONALLY BENEFICIAL, MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL, OR
  BENEFICIAL PRIMARILY TO OTHERS. Combs and
  Slably (1977)

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SOCIAL SKILLS ARE WHAT ALLOWS US TO PASS AS
NORMAL. WHETHER ONE CAN PASS AS NORMAL DEPENDS
NOT SO MUCH ON WHETHER ONE CAN READ OR WRITE, BUT
RATHER ON ONES LEVEL OF SOCIAL
DEVELOPMENT. DR. STANLEY L. GREENSPAN, noted
child psychiatrist, author and developer -
Floortime
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WHY ARE WE HAVING TO TEACH SOCIAL SKILLS? NATURE
OF THE AMERICAN FAMILY ORGANIZED
RELIGION TELEVISION AND POPULAR CULTURE Bundy,
Thompson, Strapp (1997)
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• SIDE EFFECTS OF POOR SOCIAL SKILLS
• High incidence of delinquency (Cowen et al.,
  1973)
• Dropping out of school (Ullman, 1957)
• Lower self-esteem (Parker Asher, 1987)
• Delayed cognitive development (Mathur et al.,
  1998)
• Socially unpopular (Gresham, 1981)
• Inability to hold jobs (Gresham, 1981)

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BENEFITS OF SOCIAL SKILLS TRAINING REMEDIATE OR
MINIMIZE NEGATIVE EFFECTS IMPROVES ACADEMIC
PERFORMANCE IMPROVES TEACHER STUDENT
RELATIONSHIP PROACTIVE, MINIMIZES FUTURE PROBLEMS
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CURRENT SST PROGRAMS

• Traditional SST
• Direct Instruction Approach
• Dowd, et al., (1993) Goldstein et al., (1997)
  
• Walker et al., (1983), (1988)
• Set of Skills, Reinforcement, and Role-Play
  Activities
• Social Problem Solving Approach
• I Can Problem Solve
• Spivack Shure (1974) Dubrow, Huesman, Eron
  (1987)
• Amish, Gesten, Smith, Clark, Stark,
  (1988)DZurilla (1986)

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PROBLEMS WITH SOCIAL SKILLS INSTRUCTION
GENERALIZATION AND MAINTENANCE IS
PROBLEMATIC ONE SIZE FITS ALL
MENTALITY SOCIAL CONTEXT IS CONTRIVED
Strain, 2001 Gresham,1998 Mathur et al., 1997
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INDIRECT METHOD

• Peers as Instructional Agents
• Inclusive and Non-Threatening Approach
• Explicitly and Implicitly Teaches
  Problem-Solving
• Use of High Interest Material for Todays Learner
• Generalization and Maintenance
• Social Context Addressed
• Individualized Skills

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In school and in everyday life we can be sharing
and modeling meticulous problem solving and
nurturing the developing minds of kids. I think
that parents and schools should be preparing
students for those many critical moments in life
when they will need to shift into a sophisticated
and systematic problem-solving mode. Dr. Mel
Levine, A Mind At A Time
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• PROBLEM-SOLVING
• Ask yourself, What is the problem?
• Ask yourself, What are some of my options?
• Ask yourself, Do I need help? If yes, ask for
  help.
• Pick the option with the best consequences for
  that particular problem.
• Implement your option.

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LIFESHARE social skills
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The television set is on for more than seven
hours each day in a typical American household,
and children ages 2-11 spend an average of 28
hours per week viewing television. American
children spend more time watching television than
engaging in other activities except sleep. Hughes
and Hasbrouck, 1996
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An argument against TV is that kids spend too
much time watching it at home. Good reasons for
bringing it into the school- its effect and
influence Rubinstein, 1983
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Activity

• Take out a piece of paper and divide the page
  into two columns. One for appropriate behavior
  and one for inappropriate behavior. Watch the
  clip and put a tally mark in a column based on
  the behavior observed.

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I Love Lucy Scotland Episode Clip

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vkgEEKRGzDCU

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BRS 1 GOES HERE
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Behavior Recording Sheet(BRS)

• Easily Identifiable Behaviors
• 2. Absence of Appropriate Behavior
• 3. BRS and Content Areas
• 4. Informally Assess Skill Deficits
• 5. BRS and Behavior Management System

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Discussion
1. Inappropriate and Appropriate Behavior 2.
Appropriate Alternatives 3. Teacher as
Facilitator 4. Student as Facilitator
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Observations

• Social Context (Gresham, 1998)
• 2. HOTS - Problem Solving Skills (Spivack and
• Shure, 1974)
• 3. Peers as Instructional Agents (Strain, 2001)
• 4. Generalization (Rutherford Mathur, 1996)
• 5. Internalization of Skills (Weiner Fritsch,
  1999
• Forgan Jones, 2001)

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• SAMPLE DISCUSSION
• I Love Lucy Episode
• Fred, Ethel, and Lucy form a band. Lucy is
  terrible at playing an instrument. Ricky is
  asked to critique the band.
• Questions generated by the facilitator
• How did Ricky handle the critique?
• Is it important to be honest with people
  concerning their talents and lack thereof?
• Can an honest critique hurt the feelings of
  others?
• What happens when you are not completely honest
  with someone?
• How do you tell someone they suck at something?

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• HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE DISCUSSION THAT FOLLOWED
• Dont say anything.
• Tell them in a nice way.
• Talk to them and help them become better.
• Be careful how you say it.
• Get away from the situation.
• ABLE TO FOCUS DISCUSSION ON THE FEELINGS OF
  OTHERS.HELP PEOPLE IF YOU CAN.

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• SAMPLE DISCUSSION
• Ricky call Lucy, My Crazy Redhead!
• Discussion Is this a compliment or an insult?
• 1. Its an insult cause it might hurt her
  feelings
• Hes trying to be funny
• Hes asking her how shes doing in his own way
• She didnt have a problem with it
• It wasnt said in a rude tone of voice
• Its okay as long as you are familiar with the
  person
• DISUSSION EVOLVED
• When is it okay to joke with someone, when is it
  not okay?
• OPPORTUNITY TO DISCUSS IN A NON-THREATENING
  MANNER SOCIAL CUES TO LOOK FOR WHEN DECIDING TO
  JOKE (MESS, TALK SMACK, OR NOISE) WITH SOMEONE

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• Get into 4 groups of equal numbers. Go to
  www.ivorweiner.com and click on announcements
  page. A clip will be assigned to your group.
  Preview it and prepare a lesson that you will
  teach to the class.
• Lesson format for this assignment
• Show the clip
• Ask questions such as What happened in the
  clip? Why do you think they did it? What was
  inappropriate and how might things be done
  differently? What do you think the theme or
  moral of the clip was? Why?
• Questions range from concrete to the abstract. We
  want to push students to recognize direct
  behavior and at the same time think in a critical
  manner (cognitive restructuring)
• Your questions do not have to follow exactly what
  I have written, but remember that you want to go
  from concrete to abstract.
• The group in front of you can come up with many
  different answers. Your goal is to facilitate a
  discussion. It is up to the students to be in
  charge of their own learning.

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NEWSPAPER ACTIVITIES

• Cartoons
• Advice Columns
• News Stories
• Classified Ads
• Editorials
• Picture It

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EDITORIALS

• Juvenile Inquirer Editorial
• WE NEED MORE POINTS!
• Some kids in school only get 50 points a day and
  others get 75 or more. This appears inconsistent
  to me. Some teachers dont give points, some
  give 25, and some give 50 or more. Another
  problem I see is that kids get charged points for
  going to the bathroom, getting a drink of water,
  and going to the library. Some teachers give the
  same amount of points to kids who work and to
  kids who dont work. Also some kids have more
  teachers who give points than others do. We also
  have heard that some of the Boys Unit Leaders
  dont look at any of the school points. They
  just give all kids 70 points for school. We need
  to work these problems out by having a meeting
  and discussing them. We like points and need to
  survive on them. It is important that we get
  together and act on this problem.
• 15 year-old incarcerated male, Gainesville, Texas

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• SYSTEMATIC TEACHING AND REINFORCING SOCIAL
  SKILLS
• Post Skills In the Classroom
• Teach Skills at a Neutral Time
• Model and Practice Skills
• Reinforce Using A Praise Intervention
• Reinforce Using A Feedback Intervention

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• MAKE YOUR EXPECTATIONS KNOWN
• Students need to know what is expected of them
• Send skills home to parents
• Reference posted skills by pointing them out to
  the student

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• TEACH SKILLS AT A NEUTRAL TIME
• Teaching of skills should be a natural part of
  the teaching that is already in place
• Special time or neutral time for the direct
  teaching the students skills
• Crisis time is not a good time to teach skills

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MODEL AND PRACTICE

• Children learn more by observing others than any
  other type of activity
• Skills have to be demonstrated
• Skills have to practiced
• Parent instruction and practice is very important