Scenario

What about this Scenario: Jeff is a student in Miss Erney’s class who lacks the ability to get along with his peers. Jeff’s inappropriate behavior includes taking toys and food from his classmates’ hands. On the playground, students try to avoid Jeff so that he does not take their things. When Miss Erney talked with Jeff about his inappropriate behavior, he refused to take responsibility and blamed his classmates for the problems. Recently, Jeff has withdrawn from the class, and he frequently can be found walking alone on the playground and after school. Miss Erney wants to help Jeff become more socially mature.

1. Discuss the use of sociometric techniques to assess social skills and related problems. How can Miss Erney use information from a sociogram to help Jeff? I think that it would be helpful for evaluations to be done on Jeff. I think it is important for the teacher, Jeff, and all the students in the class to fill out an evaluation on Jeff. The teacher can then use this to make up a list of things that Jeff may want to try to help him become more social. I think that it is not necessary for Jeff to see the evaluations, but rather just a summarized list of possibilities. 2. Discuss the use of social skills training to reduce Jeff’s inappropriate social behaviors. Include the use of direct instruction to increase Jeff’s interpersonal social skills. Students do not always know that what they are doing may be wrong or not appreciated by someone else. I think that this is a possibility with Jeff, he may not know when he is doing something wrong. I think that as his teacher it is important to help him realize these things and be able to eventually be able to realize them on his own without being told "no" all the time. 3. Describe three social development activities that may help Jeff with his social problems. Predict some of the possible outcomes of each activity. One activity I think that would be good is problem solving. Having Jeff work in a small group on a problem will help him socially and help him to be able to know how to act in that setting. I think another one is helping him with his conversation skills. The teacher can help Jeff with these conversation skills by asking him questions and getting him to use his simple manners. The third activity I would try as a teacher of Jeff's is helping him give compliments to improve friendship skills. I would give Jeff a small amount like 2 to start with and that would be home many compliments he had to give. The teacher can then slowly work that number up to a larger one. 4. Instructional games promote positive peer relations and enable the teacher to work on specific social behaviors. Create a game that Miss Erney can use to help promote Jeff’s social development. A game that I would make for Jeff is one that has a combination of compliments and constructive criticism. Write a bunch of card up that list one or the other and then have to student sort them into piles as either a compliment or a constructive criticism. 5. Discuss the use of life-space interviewing and reality therapy as two interventions to manage Jeff’s behavior and promote his emotional development. Using reality therapy and life-space interviewing are both good ways to help Jeff with his behavior problems. They are both ways for the teacher to find out what Jeff is thinking about the situation and giving him possibilities on fixing it. These activities are good interaction activities to try and help the student become more socially responsible of themselves.