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Social Skills >> Elementary

RELATIONSHIP SKILLS

"Catching on to Getting Along I and II"

"Catching on to Getting Along" increases basic communication and interaction skills, including sustaining joint attention, appropriate eye contact and body placement, shifting attention and focus, introducing self, demonstrating caring, offering and giving help, making apologies, and giving and accepting compliments.


Goals: Participants will increase skills in the following areas:

* Sustaining joint attention with peers on activities they choose and on activities a peer chooses.
* Sustaining appropriate eye contact and body placement during communication and interactions with peers and adults.
* Shifting attention and focus among subjects, activities, and thoughts.
* Introducing self to peers and adults.
* Starting and sustaining reciprocal conversations with peers and adults; Ending conversations.
* Demonstrating caring for peers by sharing, taking turns, asking and answering questions, and helping.
* Offering and giving help in appropriate ways and managing feelings and behaviors when the offer is declined.
* Recognizing when an apology is needed and making apologies to peers and adults in appropriate ways.
* Giving and accepting compliments.


"Getting Along with Friendship I and II"

"Getting Along with Friendship" reinforces and expands upon "Catching Along to Getting Along", and places more focus on personal relationship development. Specific behaviors to help individuals pro- mote friendships will be key (planting friendship seeds), but behaviors that "zap" potential friendships will also be discussed.

Goals:
Participants will:
* Develop a personal definition of friend
* Define and demonstrate possible ways to “make” a friend
* Define and demonstrate ways to be a good friend and “grow” friendships
* Define behaviors that can impede friendship growth
* Recognize personal needs for specific friendship skill improvement
* Develop personal goals for improving friendship skills
* Develop a repertoire of activities to do with friends
* Develop and demonstrate a repertoire of friendship words to show care for others

"Moving on with Friendship I and II"

Please call for description.

COMMUNICATION SKILLS
"Catching On To Conversations I and II"

"Catching on to Conversations" presents the basics of peer and adult greeting styles, introducing self and others, starting, maintaining, and ending conversations, conversational manners, and a wide variety of "hidden language" and other nonverbal communication skills.

Goals:
Participants will increase skills in the following areas:
* Initiating conversations with peers and adults.
* Demonstrating nonverbal communication skills throughout conversations.
* Demonstrating physical behaviors appropriate to a variety of conversations.
* Selecting and creating conversation starters appropriate to various types of people.
* Sustaining appropriate and interesting reciprocal conversations with peers and adults.
* Demonstrating conversation manners.
* Changing topics of conversation.
* Ending conversations.

"Moving On With Communication"

"Moving on with Communication" reviews and expands basic conversation skills and adds basic conversational responses, nonverbal and contextual clues (receptive and expressive), greetings and farewells specific to conversational partners, conversation initiations designed for specific conversational partners, nonverbal conversational skills, tone of voice skills, and conversational manners.

Goals: Participants will increase skills in the following areas of conversation:
Basic Conversational Responses.
* Answering yes/no questions.
* Answering simple questions with a one or two word reply.
* Responding to a statement with a statement.
* Answering open-ended questions.
* Responding to a statement with a question.
* Responding to a question with a brief statement and a reciprocal question.
* Responding to a statement with a statement followed by a question.

Recognizing and Interpreting Nonverbal and Contextual Clues in Other People
* Learning to recognize body language, facial expression, and contextual clues to other people’s thoughts, intentions, and feelings.
* Learning to use the above skills to predict what is most likely to happen next in a given social interaction. (This includes beginning to learn sequencing skills in the context of social interactions.)

Greetings and Farewells
* Determining when to use formal versus informal greetings.
* Learning to shake hands.
* Learning to use nonverbal clues during greetings and farewells.


"Specializing in Communication"

"Specializing in Communication" reviews and expands basic and intermediate conversation skills, provides significant quantities and variety in conversation experiences, and presents safe and appropriate topics, activities, and settings for initiating and carrying on conversations, offering and asking for help, and giving and receiving compliments.

Goals:
Participants will increase skills in the following areas of Conversation:

Making Introductions
* Choosing good timing for the introduction.
* Choosing the right words for the particular social situation.
* Using good nonverbal clues.
* Using handshakes appropriately.

Public Versus Private
* Learning to distinguish what types of topics are safe and appropriate in various settings and with different people.
* Discerning what types of activities are safe and appropriate in various settings and with different people.
* Recognizing in what types of places it is safe and appropriate to be with different categories of people.

Offering and Asking for Help
* Learning how to offer help in various situations.
* Learning how to ask for help in a variety of situations.

Giving and Receiving Compliments
* Using four different types of compliments appropriately.
* Identifying whom, when, and how often to compliment.
* Responding to compliments appropriately.


"Communicating in The Community I and II"  (Format offers a combination of classroom instruction and community participation)

" Communicating in the Community" covers communication and interaction skills appropriate for community outings. Specific skills for successful experiences in restaurants, stores, movie theaters, shops, others' homes, museums, and other community settings are presented in the center and then directly practiced in different settings.

Goals: Participants will increase skills in the following areas:
* Using proper etiquette and manners in public settings.
* Waiting for the services they desire.
* Displaying proper "public" behavior in all circumstances.
* Managing changes in plans.
* Managing obsessions with special interests and desires.
* Getting along with everyone in the group.
* Negotiating with group members in decision-making situations.
* Advocating for what they need and desire, while honoring the needs and desires of others

EMOTIONAL SKILLS

"Managing Anxiety and Stress I, II, and III"

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"Fabulous Feelings for Everyone"

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"Meet and Manage Emotions"

"Meet and Manage Emotions" helps participants to identify and label positive and negative emotions, redirect negative thoughts to positive thoughts, interpret nonverbal, tone of voice, and situational feeling clues, identify degrees of emotions, express feelings with words and nonverbal clues, recognize and manage intense emotions.

Goals:
Participants will increase skills in the following areas:
* Identifying and labeling happiness.
* Identifying and labeling other emotions.
* Redirecting negative thoughts to positive thoughts.
* Interpreting nonverbal feeling clues.
* Interpreting tone of voice feeling clues.
* Interpreting situational feeling clues.
* Identifying degrees of emotions.
* Expressing feelings with words.
* Expressing feelings with nonverbal clues.
* Recognizing intense emotions.
* Managing intense emotions.


"Soothing Stress"

"Soothing Stress" helps participants to identify personal causes and effects of stress, identify stress signals, recognize early signs of stress, rank stress levels, identify, choose and practice relaxation tech- niques, recognize preventable stressors, and take steps to prevent stress.

Goals:
Participants will increase skills in the following areas:
* Identifying common causes and effects of stress.
* Identifying underlying or hidden stressors.
* Identifying triggering events for stress.
* Identifying outcomes of their stress.
* Identifying stress signals - outward signs - body and physical symptoms.
* Determining relaxation techniques for stressful situations.
* Recognizing early signs of stress.
* Ranking levels of stress.
* Using the identified relaxation techniques for different stressful situations.
* Recognizing preventable stressors.
* Taking steps to prevent/minimize the effects of stressors.

SELF-MANAGEMENT SKILLS

"Fitting in at School" 

"Fitting in at School" introduces participants to unspoken expectations, and skills to pay attention, ask for help appropriately when help is necessary, express grievances to teacher privately instead of using public defensiveness, show appreciation, follow directions, ask questions appropriately, participate meaningfully in discussions and activities, complete assignments on time.

Goals: Participants will increase skills in the following areas:
* Knowing unspoken expectations.
* Paying attention during instruction.
* Paying attention to directions.
* Trying on their own before asking for help.
* Determining when they need help.
* Asking for the specific help they need when they need help.
* Showing appreciation for help.
* Following teachers’ directions.
* Asking questions to gain identified, necessary information.
* Participating meaningfully in discussions and activities.
* Completing assignments on time.

"Slick Self-Control I, II, and III"

"Slick Self-Control" helps participants know to cool off before responding, manage and advocate for themselves when teased, ask per- mission first, admit mistakes, accept consequences, and manage and advocate for themselves when feeling blamed.

Goals:
Participants will increase skills in the following areas:
* Using Self-Control.
* Developing strategies for cooling off when they're too angry to respond rationally.
* Maintaining control when teased.
* Choosing an appropriate strategy for dealing with teasers.
* Asking permission to use another's belongings.
* Admitting their own mistakes and accepting the consequences.
* Remaining calm when they have been blamed for doing something that they have done.
* Remaining calm and advocating for themselves when they have been blamed for something they have not done.

"Notable Needs"

"Notable Needs" helps participants recognize their own and others' needs, identify fair and unfair, speak up and advocate for self and others, compete successfully, win or lose, accept and communicate how to say "no" appropriately, and negotiate simple conflicts.

Goals:
Participants will increase skills in the following areas: Being Responsible for Recognizing and Valuing Their Own Needs and the Needs of Others.
* Identifying when a situation is fair or unfair.
* Speaking up in a firm, confident, yet non-aggressive, manner when they believe something isn't fair.
* Taking action to deal with the hurt of being left out.
* Communicating positively during competition by winning graciously and losing with dignity.
* Accepting no for an answer graciously.
* Saying no in a firm and kind way.
* Working out mutually acceptable solutions during times of conflict with others.


"Coming To Peace With Conflict"

"Coming to Peace with Conflict" increases participants' knowledge of causes of conflict, helps participant identify and use strategies and peaceful behaviors and words that prevent/manage conflict, and negotiate solutions to conflicts.

Goals:
Participants will increase skills in the following areas:
* Identifying causes of conflict with others.
* Understanding a variety of conflict-management strategies.
* Using identified strategies to manage conflict.
* Identifying behaviors and words that can prevent conflict.
* Using verbal and nonverbal strategies to prevent/manage conflict.
* Negotiating peaceful solutions to conflicts.


"Collaborating With Conflict"

"Collaborating with Conflict" facilitates valuing conflict as a tool for learning and growth, communicating feelings in writing, expressing negative feelings and opinions appropriately, talking about problems with a third party, discussing problems with others, negotiat- ing peaceful solutions, and recognizing any personal need to make apologies and/or restitution for mistakes, and making them.

Goals:
Participants will increase skills in the following areas:
* Recognizing the value of conflict.
* Communicating their feelings in writing or on audiotape for release and self-discovery.
* Expressing negative feelings verbally in appropriate ways.
* Expressing negative opinions verbally in appropriate ways.
* Talking about problems with neutral, safe third parties.
* Discussing their problems with others with the others.
* Negotiating peaceful solutions to their problems with others.
* Recognizing when they need to make an apology.
* Making necessary apologies.
* Recognizing when they need to make restitution for something they have said or done.
* Making restitution for mistakes they have made verbally or physically.

"Complying with Compliance"

"Complying With Compliance". Working with the participants' parents and teachers, the WMLC staff facilitates learning to comply with necessary academic or self-help tasks as presented by parents and teachers.

Goals:
Participants will increase skills in the following areas:
* Complying with academic or self-help tasks at their level of ability.
* Learning the academic skills they need to reach their potential for independence and personal fulfillment.
* Learning the self-help skills they need to reach their potential for independence and personal fulfillment.


"Thinking Through Behavior"

 "Thinking Through Behavior" (Creative Problem Solving). This offering uses a cognitive behavioral approach to help participants change the way they think about themselves, others, and their situations and then make necessary behavior changes that will enhance their success in their families, neighborhoods, classrooms, and communities. Dr. Angel Adams Ph.D., author and creator of this program, will provide on-going support and supervision for staff and participants in this offering. An experienced and gifted therapist, Dr. Adams lives and practices in London, England.

Goals:
Participants will:
* Identify behaviors that enhance success in relationships, in classrooms, in social situations, and in home situations.
* Identify behaviors that interfere with successful relationships, classroom performance, social performance and home and family life.
* Examine the connection between "thinking" and "behaving."
* Identify current individual thinking that enhances success.
* Identify current individual thinking that interferes with success.
* Develop and demonstrate new ways of thinking that can help individuals change behaviors in ways that enhance success in relationships, school and community settings, social situations, and home and family life.

"Managing Anger and Annoyance I, II, and III"

Please call for description.


SELF-AWARENESS AND APPRECIATION

"Asperger Syndrome/High-Functioning Autism What Does It Mean To Me?"
This course is designed to guide those identified with Asperger Syndrome, high functioning autism spectrum disorders, and nonverbal language disorders through a process of discovering their unique gifts and characteristics.

The course also encourages them to enjoy themselves for who they are, while also recognizing that they may need to learn special skills to func- tion successfully in the world. Participants will learn and be encouraged to develop or expand on self-management and self-advocacy skills.

Self Awareness and Appreciation is a 32-Week curriculum broken down into four consecutive terms at WMLC to include the Fall Term (8 weeks), the Winter Term (8 weeks), the Spring Term (8 weeks) and Summer Term (8 Weeks) for a total of 32 weeks.

Fees are payable by term.

The workbook will be an additional one-time fee.

"American Girls Self-Awareness"

(Girls only Ages 8-12)

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SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING

"Social Boundaries and Self-Management"

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DEPRESSION

Course to be determined -- coming soon.

VARIETY

"Kids Chat-N-Chill" (Format offers a combination of classroom instruction and community participation)

Course titles above may be selected for classroom portion of group and combined with community participation.

Please call for further information.