1 You Will Be My Friend! Objectives Social

Objectives
You Will Be My
Friend!
1.
Teaching Social
Emotional Skills to
Children with Disabilities
2.
Dr. Elizabeth A. Steed
Georgia State University
3.
Recognize the challenges that young
children with disabilities may have with
social development
Identify several evidence-based strategies
that may be used to improve the social
skills of young children with disabilities
Discuss issues with social skills
interventions and ways to address
implementation issues in real world
settings
Social-Emotional Competence
Children with Disabilities
Observing and imitating peers
 Talking and listening to peers
 Leading and “going with the flow”
 Sharing
 Helping
 Identifying emotions
 Describing emotions
 Regulating emotions (assessment)


Joseph & Strain, 2003
Specific Disabilities
Less preferred as playmates
 Targets of bullying and teasing
 Difficulties in interpersonal understanding
◦ May not pick up on social cues
Challenges generating solutions to
problems
 Difficulties reading and processing
complex or mixed emotions

Diamond, Huang, & Steed, 2011
The Teaching Pyramid
Children with intellectual disabilities
Children with Down syndrome
 Children with physical disabilities
 Children with autism
 Children with visual impairments


Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (2008)
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Websites for Resources
Setting the Stage
CSEFEL: http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/
 TACSEI:
http://www.challengingbehavior.org/
 Gilbert Creek website (Early childhood
center in Southern Oregon):
http://www.soesd.k12.or.us/Page.asp?NavI
D=1537


Cooperative toys and materials
◦ Puppets, balls, wagons, telephones, dress up
clothes, dramatic play materials, tire swings,
rocking boats, board games

Embed friendship activities across
routines (e.g., friendship art)
Joseph & Strain, 2003
Classroom Teaching Strategies for Large
and/or Small Groups
Modeling
 Preparing peer partners
 Playing games in small groups
 Discussing children’s books
 Songs, fingerplays, and puppets
 Social, scripted stories
 Discussing emotions

Fox & Lentini, 2006
2
I Can Be a SUPER FRIEND!
Social Stories
Help children understand new or
unfamiliar situations, routines, or rules
 Free social stories to download:
http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/resources/strat
egies.html

◦
◦
◦
◦
I Go to Preschool On the Bus
What Do We Do in Circle?
I Can Stay Safe
I Can Use My Words
Created for Tab by Lisa Grant & Rochelle Lentini
2002
CSEFEL, 2008
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Sometimes, I want to play with what
my friends are playing with.
When I play, I sometimes feel like taking toys, using mean words,
or hitting and kicking.
I like talking and playing
with my friends
at school.
My Friends get sad or mad when I hit,
kick, use mean words, or take toys.
15
If I want to join in play, I need to join nicely or ask to play
with my friends’ toys.
16
First I stop, then I think about what a
Super Friend would do.
Super Friends:
Use nice talking,
Can I play with you?
Have gentle hands and feet,
Look with their eyes,
Listen with their ears, &
I can say, “Can I play with that toy?” or “Can I play
with you?”.
Take turns with toys.
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Using Children’s Literature
Use repetition of the story
 Explain and ask open-ended questions to
elicit social emotional skills in the book
during the reading
 Extension activities, examples:

◦ Make masks of emotions
◦ Play games to practice what you can do with
your hands
◦ Do large movements to express emotions
CSEFEL, 2008
Books – Small Group Activity

Directions:
◦ Complete the book activity in small groups with
your assigned book
First, select one person to read the book
aloud to everyone at the table
Published Curricula with High Level of
Evidence for Adoption

◦ Includes home-school connection
◦ Focuses on problem solving skills
◦ Video explaining the curriculum:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HOy_12XjxI
 Identify the social emotional skills you might address
with the book
 Center activities related to the book/theme/skills
 Activities for other routines

First Step (Walker, 1998)
Llama Llama Misses Mama Example
 Other book activities online:
http://www.merrybee.info/ba/llama.html

Book list

I Can Problem Solve (Shure, 2000)
◦ Teaches how to manage conflict situations by
reading other children’s cues, taking others’
perspectives, and generating appropriate
solutions to problems
◦ 50 lessons over 12 weeks

Incredible Years: Child Training
◦ For young children with clinically significant
behavior problems meeting criteria for ODD
or early onset Conduct Disorder
◦ Conducted in a clinic setting
◦ Parent training (small groups) component that
uses video-based modules
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Published Curricula with Medium Level of
Evidence for Adoption

Incredible Years Series: Dinosaur School
(Webster-Stratton, 1990b)

◦ Includes parent training
◦ Social problem-solving is taught through puppets,
video modeling, and role-plays
Al’s Pals: Kids Making Healthy Choices
(Geller,1999)
◦ http://www.wingspanworks.com/educational_program
s/about_als_pals.php

Used school-wide as part of universal
prevention to increase social-emotional
skills and decrease challenging behavior
 Elementary and preschool versions
 Two years’ worth of lessons and activities
 Originally piloted with young children
who were DHH
 Parent involvement materials

Social Skills in Pictures, Stories, and Songs
(Serna, Nielsen, & Forness, 2007)
◦ Built around 4 original stories and songs (e.g.,
Prairie Pete who learn to share, Rosie the
Roadrunner who learns to follow directions)
◦ Includes books, CD, teacher’s guide, and 10
coloring books
◦ Piloted in Head Start classrooms
http://www.pathstraining.com/main/curriculum/
Published Curricula with Low Level of
Evidence for Adoption

Emotions Course (Izard, 2001)
◦ Puppets and storytelling to improve emotional
recognition and regulation
◦ Piloted in Head Start classrooms

Second Step (Committee for Children, 1991)

Reaching Educators, Children, and Parents
(RECAP; Han, 2001)
Curricula for Disabilities

Triple P Stepping Stones
(www.TripleP-America.org)
◦ Developed for families of children birth to 12
years old with a disability
◦ High level of evidence, sample has included
children with ASD, Down syndrome, and
cerebral palsy
◦ 10 sessions tailored to family’s needs
◦ Addresses behavioral issues as well as SIB,
pica, and repetitive behaviors
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Other Interventions

Peer-mediated interventions
◦ Play scripts
◦ Video- or computer-based instruction with
typical peer exemplars

Teacher-mediated interventions
◦ Positive reinforcement, modeling, rehearsal,
feedback
◦ Naturalistic teaching procedures
◦ Self-monitoring
Grisham-Brown, Hemmeter, & Pretti-Frontczak, 2005
Classroom Incidental Teaching
Strategies
Model emotional language throughout the
day for yourself and children
 Provide positive feedback for children
when they use social skills or describe
their emotions
 Scaffold children’s problem solving

◦ Provide verbal choices
◦ Solution kit
CSEFEL, 2008
3 X 3 SOLUTION KIT CUE CARDS
Provide Positive Feedback for Social
Skills and Talking About Emotions
Sharing
Helping a friend
 Coming up with a win-win solution
 Recognizing Super Friend:
http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/modules/modu
le2/presenters-ppt/V2_9.MPG
 Super Friend Award


CSEFEL, 2008
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Social Emotional Skills – Issues

Generalization to new people, materials,
settings
◦ Helps to embed instruction in everyday
routines
Limited implementation of research-based
interventions in natural settings
 Limited published curricula for children
with disabilities
 Teacher’s reluctance to provide
individualized interventions

References

Center for Social Emotional Foundations of Early Learning (2008).
http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/

Diamond, K. E., Huang, H., & Steed, E. A. (2011). The development of social
competence in children with disabilities. In P.K. Smith & C.H. Hart (Eds.), Handbook
of Childhood Social Development: 2nd Edition (pp. 627-645). West Sussex, UK: WileyBlackwell.

Fox, L., & Lentini, R. (2006). “You got it!” Teaching social emotional skills. Young
Children Online, 1-7.

Grisham-Brown, J., Hemmeter, M. L., & Pretti-Frontczak, K. (2005). Blended practices
for teaching young children in inclusive settings. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.

Joseph, G. E., & Strain, P. S. (2003). Comprehensive evidence-based social-emotional
curricula for young children: An analysis of efficacious adoption potential. Topics in
Early Childhood Special Education, 23, 65-76.

Joseph, G. E., & Strain, P. S. (2003). You’ve got to have friends. The Center on Social
Emotional Foundations of Learning: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Contact Information

Elizabeth A. Steed, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor & Program
Coordinator
Early Childhood Special Education
Georgia State University
[email protected]
404-413-8315
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