Goal: To improve initial social skills
Objective(s): The student will acknowledge the presence of another person with an appropriate greeting.
Process Steps:
1. Look to see who is around.
2. Decide if the person is safe.
3. Give verbal or non-verbal greeting.
Discuss
Definition: When you acknowledge the presence of others you let them know somehow that you know they are there.
Rationale: Discuss the importance of Step #2 and "deciding if the person is safe." Give guidelines for determining this including body language, environment, age and potential consequences of unsafe strangers. Review introducing yourself, "greetings."
Where/When/Comments:
• Describe or brainstorm occasions children would need this
skill (playground, new situations, joining in or grouping).
• Discuss the importance of safety (Step #2) and how to
decide if the person is safe (body language, age, environment).
• Review "stranger danger."
• Review introducing yourself.
• List/discuss verbal and non-verbal greetings.
• Brainstorm situations students might be in where they
don't know all of the people.
Model/Role-play with
Feedback
• Teacher pantomimes the skill steps with students
identifying each.
• You go to a birthday party where you only know the host.
• Your parents are having a party..
• You are at the playground and want to join a group in the
sandbox.
• You join a soccer team.
• Your mom takes you to a gymnastics class.
• You are watching your older brother play baseball; a group
of other siblings are playing.
• You arrive for the first class at Sunday school.
• There is a neighborhood outside game.
• Students make a set of cards - "safe" and
"unsafe." Teacher reads situations. A student holds up
the appropriate card.
Role play situations:
• You are at a gathering of your older brother's friends.
• You are at a game room at the mall (remember safety).
• You are sharing recess with a different, unknown class.
• You move to a new school.
• A strange group of 8 kids is hanging around in front of
your house.
• You are a guest at a school dance at a school you do not
attend.
• A group of unknown teenagers is at your school.
• You attend a meeting of a 12-step program or support
group.
• You are shopping for Nintendo games at a discount store.
• You join a karate or gymnastics class.
• You try out for a new team.
• You are in the bleachers watching a sporting event.
Application with Feedback
• Set up separate play areas (kitchen, etc.). Students take
turns being the one to enter the area. Both practice
acknowledging and giving a greeting.
• Take a walking trip at the mall, stopping to discuss if
situations are safe or unsafe.
• Set up situations where a student is invited to be a part
of a different class grouping or recess. Receiving staff observes
progress in all the skill steps.
• Student is designated as the host in a play area. He uses
all three skill steps in acknowledging newcomers.
• Set up four unstructured centers. Students are assigned
color coded tags. At a signal, all the yellow tags move to a new
area and implement the steps.
• Students write their feelings in a journal upon observing
or entering a group of others including how the skill steps help
or do not help them.
• Students design a board game and write situations where
they might need to acknowledge the presence of others.
Incorporate a "danger card" for times that the person
or situation might be unsafe.
• Students write short unfinished stories setting a scene
where they are in an unfamiliar
situation. Have each read their story aloud with the class
writing or discussing the appropriate ending.
• Students, "mime" the skill steps using only
non-verbals and body language. Exaggerated movements of pantomime
will reinforce the steps.
• Specify certain times of day to be used only in non-verbal
greeting such as passing time in hall, etc.
• Parents are asked to monitor students utilizing this skill
in a variety of home or neighborhood activities.
• Students report situations they utilized the skill -
monitor and report success.
• Older students teach this skill to a younger individual or
group.
• Have a party or study session with another less familiar
classroom where students can report on the specific ways they
acknowledged others.
• Videotape students as they enter a work or play area to
observe if they follow the process steps.
Social Skills Curriculum Guide, 1992
Special School District of St. Louis County