Teaching Social Skills Through Lessons

Social skills are vital for development in children. When children have good social skills, they are able to be more successful with relationships, behavior, social emotional well being and academics. In my opinion, social skills must be taught explicitly like any academic skill and practiced frequently. Spoiler alert…this is where social skill lessons come in!

I have found that when teaching social skill lessons, using a social story is so helpful and beneficial for children. A social story provides direct teaching of social skills and outlines appropriate ways to behave. I like using social stories that have simple language for children to understand and tying together with teaching visuals. Visuals provide children with pictures and examples on how to interact and behave.

In all my social skill lessons, not only are social stories included, but visuals are also included to help children master a skill more effectively. This allows them have a constant reminder of the expectation or skill. I like laminating a 1/4page sized visual and taping it to a child’s desk or table spot. This helps remind them non-verbally of the social skill they are working on. Sometimes this might look like a behavior expectation that aligns to the social skills or the social skill itself.

It is so important when teaching a social skill lesson to provide multiple opportunities for children to practice. For example, in the above social skill lesson, Asking For Help, students are able to role play through different scenarios to determine if it is an appropriate time or not appropriate time to ask for help. A skill that is so important in the classroom. Tools are provided within the lesson to help students with step by step practice of social skill.

Social skill lesson are not just for a social skills group or counselor to provide. These are great ways to implement a lesson, but they are not limited to these two areas. Social skill lessons can be done in a grade level classroom during a morning meeting, special education classroom during a direct teaching time, or in any classroom during any non-academic time! The power of a whole class social skill lesson is that ALL students are learning, practicing and hopefully mastering a skill together. This will help improve classroom management and behavior in all the right ways!

Looking to add social skill lessons to your classroom? Check out my BUNDLE OF SOCIAL SKILL LESSONS!

These no prep lessons are easy to add to any classroom and all you have to do it TEACH! Win win!

Leave a comment below if you have used one of my social skill lessons and how it has positivity impacted your students!