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Richard Lavoie

Learning Disabilities and Social Skills

September 2010

The Big Question…

Is it our responsibility to teach learning disabled students social

skills?

Why Should We Teach Social Skills?

• All environments are social environments

• Learning Disabled children do not learn Social Skills through osmosis, accident, or exposure

• The Social Skills must be TAUGHT; inclusion is not enough.

Why Teach Social Skills

• One cannot compensate for a Social Skill Disability.

• In other words, we can accommodate a reading disability and a math disability through technology, and/or modification and adaptation.

• There are no adaptations for a Social Skill Disability

Why Social Skills are hard to teach

• To teach the skill, it must be broken down into the most basic skill level.

• Example: signing the thank-you card

• 12 out 15 LD students didn’t know where to sign the card

The Learning Disability itself can cause the Social Skill problem

InterrogorationADD ADHDDisinhibitory ResponsesImpulsivity

LD students cannot ask questions.

• What is the social implication of not being able to ask a question?

– Social difficulty – finding the lunch room– Academic difficulty-asking for help/clarification

Define Distractibility

• A child with no attention span pays attention to nothing– Lower cognitive level– intellectually impaired

• The child who is distractible pays attention to everything

What are the social implications of selective attention?

Friends….

Teachers……

Disinhibition OTM-OTM

• The inability to repress thoughts or actions that may be socially inappropriate

• Lack inhibitory responses: On the Mind-Out the Mouth

• Social Implication: What if everything you thought you said out loud?

Impulsivity

• To act without considering the natural consequences of the action

• Ready, Fire, Aim

• What is the social implication of such behavior?

Social Autopsy

• The examination of a social error to discover the cause of the error, determine the damage, and prevent it from occurring again.

• Instead of punishment..make the mistake an opportunity to learn

Recommendation from Socially Successful Students

• Types of students– Rejected– Ignored– Controversial– Popular

• Fox and Weaver researched what students who are socially successful do right

• Created a list of skills and positive traits to be taught to other students to make them more socially skilled.

What skills can we teach?

Say “Thanks” to your teachers.

During Class You Can:

Look at your teacher

Participate

Ask

Questions

Be On Time

Keep your work neat.

Turn in your assignments on time.

No Sweats

To School!

Want a Friend? Smile

Say Hi!

Talk and Listen

Share

Give Compliments

Invite Others

……..Be a Friend

The Hidden Curriculum: the unwritten, unspoken rules of the

school• What is the hidden

curriculum of your school?

• Where is the H.C. most frequently seen?

• What is the effect of the hidden curriculum on the learning disabled students with a social skill deprivation?

Top 7 Skills Needed to Succeed in the Mainstream Classroom

• Listening• Follow Directions• Stay On Task• How to get Help• Ability to get started• Finish on Time• Word Attack Skills

• All but the last skill is a part of the hidden curriculum

How to Find the Hidden Curriculum

• Ask:– Colleagues– Support staff– Student counsel

• Look at:– Publications : yearbook, newspaper– Survey, brain storm

Directly Teach the Hidden Curriculum to your Learning Disabled Students

• Examine the Physical Plan of the School• Explain how to access the correct

Administrator/teacher with problems• Insure the child understands the schedule or

changes to it• Provide specific guidance to actual teacher

expectations regarding homework, tests, and being punctual.