Teaching Students Social Skills: Session 6

Session 6

The Stop & Think Social Skills Program’s Skills, Scripts, Use “on the Fly,” and Use in the Common Areas of the School

[Total Session Time: 1 hour]

Teaching Students the Stop & Think Universal Language for Typical and Emotional Skills
Teaching Students Stop & Think Classroom Skills and Scripts
Using Music to Reinforce Classroom Skills and Scripts
Teaching Students Stop & Think Common Area Skills and Scripts
Doing Stop & Think Training “On the Fly”
Training Support Staff in the Stop & Think Process

This session continues to describe specific part of the Stop & Think Social Skills instructional process. It begins by discussing the five steps of the Stop & Think Universal Language, the neuropsychological science underlying these steps, and how the steps are used for typical (or routine) social skills as opposed to social skills that involve conditions of emotionality.

Sections 2 and 3 of this session outline how to teach students Stop & Think social skills by embedding each skill’s “skill script” into the third step of the Universal Language, and the availability and how to use music to reinforce the skill instruction with prekindergarten through Grade 1 students. Four songs that teach the skill scripts to the Listening, Following Directions, Waiting for Your Turn, and Accepting Consequences skills are sampled.

Section 4 discusses (a) how the common areas of the school differ, relative to students’ behavior and interactions, from its classrooms; (b) how to conceptualize and identify the behavioral expectations and skill scripts in each common school area; and (c) how to teach these behaviors to students using the Stop & Think language and process.

Using the Stop & Think Universal Language and process “on the fly” to address a student’s inappropriate behavior as it is occurring is addressed next. Here, the importance of identifying the desired behavior that should replace the inappropriate behavior is emphasized, and a Stop & Think script is presented to guide the student through the steps of this “replacement behavior.” An example of how to correct a student who is blurting out answers is provided.

The session ends with discussion on how to train support staff (e.g., paraprofessionals, teachers’ aides, cafeteria workers, secretaries, custodians, bus drivers) in using the Stop & Think language and process in their specific settings and for the positive and inappropriate behaviors that occur in those settings. Also described here are the best ways for support staff to talk, guide, reinforce, correct, and build relationships with students.

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