How To Teach Social Skills In The Classroom
Social skills in the classroom are those that come into play when the child interacts with the school environment, whether with classmates, elements of the school or with the teacher. These skills are acquired and are different from those used in the home. How to work them in the classroom?
In class, learning exceeds the drawing of the circle or the writing of the name. At school, children acquire tools to socialize, so interaction with others ranges from greeting at the beginning of the day to sharing materials and toys. It also goes through discovering the emotions of friends or the way in which they deal with a moment of frustration .
The role that the institution fulfills in this regard is to stimulate the harmonious development of social skills in the classroom. Although the repertoire of behaviors is not the same at home as it is at school, it is true that the latter helps to enrich those expressions that tend to make them socialize among peers.
The social skills in the classroom can be learned
- For the experience itself. It is when, after a positive or negative experience, a conclusion is reached to continue experimenting in the subsequent interaction.
- By advice or rule. Basically it is when the rules of coexistence within an institution are defined. It also applies to all those observations that are building the ethical set of each person.
In the classroom, the child observes, listens, reflects, exchanges ideas, decides for himself and identifies what the other feels. From there, the institution tries to consolidate certain skills that enable empathic coexistence in the group.
Social skills in the classroom can be learned on a day-to-day basis. Next, we will see some guidelines to carry it out.
Talk about emotions
When a child is upset, it is not only necessary to listen to him, attend to him and allow him to express himself, but also to teach him to identify what he feels. One of the things that frustrates them the most is the impossibility of explaining to others and to themselves what is happening.
By being able to understand himself, the child calms down and can learn to manage his frustrations : talking, reading a story, drawing, playing with a manipulable object, are some possible ways to carry it out.
Install clear rules
A child who knows the rules of the place he is in will be able to more easily appropriate the space. By feeling part of a whole, the feeling of responsibility will emerge in pursuit of the common good. For this, it is explained that each place, each toy, each material … requires a certain use, a certain treatment and specific behavior.
The look towards the other and the other
The teaching of social skills in the classroom involves not only the individual experience of each child, but the group itself as a subject to be educated. So, to develop these skills, it is essential to promote empathy among peers. This can be achieved in several ways:
- Ask questions about the emotions of others, in such a way that everyone thinks about their own emotions.
- Take conflicts as an opportunity to reflect on causes, feelings and ways of solving them.
- Help to interpret non-verbal language, so that the observation of the other is more encompassing each time.
Talk about social skills in the classroom
On a daily basis, a teacher will know how to be attentive to the emotional needs of the group. By detecting a common factor in terms of skills to develop in school, you can speak directly about what this or that skill means.
Some examples of topics that can be taught for better socialization
For children to learn to socialize in the classroom, these aspects and their development can be very positive:
- Express my feelings and needs so that the other person understands me.
- Ask for help and don’t assume that the other person guesses what I need.
- Help whomever needs it.
- Praise or encourage a friend.
- Learn to listen to stories, stories, or simply what a friend expresses to me.
- Learn to say “no” respectfully.
- Resolve conflicts fairly.
- Respect shifts.
- Share common materials.
- Respect my friend’s work without destroying or interrupting.
- Respect my friend’s body and space.
- Learn to invite a friend to play.
Finally, it is interesting, to teach social skills in the classroom, to promote discussion in the group. To do this, teachers must give examples and allow children to question and analyze concepts. Although brief, and even barely pronounced, group reflections are essential to fix the new acquisition in a group way.
