How real events can change your lesson plans.

Some days the kindergarten teacher comes to you at lunch about a student in your next group that is having trouble making friends at recess.  He is (for the first time all year!) branching out and trying to play with the other kids in his class. Unfortunately, he attempts to include himself through pushing into other kids and trying to throw snow at them.  In turn, when he is pushed back/has snow thrown in his direction per rules of the "game", he suddenly feels very threatened and returns inside sobbing.

So, what happened?  Well, it's layered.  First of all, throwing snow and pushing are two things against the recess rules, so that issue is dealt with by the teacher for all parties.  But the underlying issue for this upset student is that he tried to put himself out there, and ultimately felt rejected. 

Enter the SLP, since the fundamental problem was that there was a breakdown in communication at a few different levels.  My student didn't properly initiate the interaction, which led the other students to assume he understood and consented to the game rules.  Furthermore, when he didn't consent to the game rules, he didn't stand up for himself and tell them to cut it out, walk away from the situation, or figure out some other way to cope with his situation.  Instead, he became upset and frustrated, and it led to him feeling rejected and, for lack of a better term, harassed.  It was an excellent opportunity for an SLP or Social Worker to step in, and I happened to have a longer standing relationship with the student, and we have been working together on social stories and various other social language issues that have arisen recently.  He was also to be seen by me in about 18 minutes.

So I started with something basic: a sort for good ways to make friends, and not-good ways to make friends. The idea was simple: I needed to rule out if he understood that there are ways to initiate a friendship that are successful, and others that are not.  Because I wanted it to be a little jazzed up, but didn't have time for graphics, my trusty eggs were employed. 

I left out most of my pink ones, since it's a group of boys. In the end, neither wanted the pink one, so I ended up opening that one.

Into the eggs went my little slips. 

The students enjoyed picking an egg and deciding if it was a good egg (good idea) or bad egg (bad idea).  I wrote the sort up on the whiteboard to help visually differentiate the good ideas and bad ideas.

 


The good news is that my student seemed to understand (in theory at least) which ideas were good and which were not good.  It means my next step was talking with the teacher to make sure she gives him some ways to "get out" of playing with kids at recess if he doesn't feel comfortable with what's happening. Either through some script practice or working something out with the adults who are outside with him during recess.  At the same time, I will reinforce those ideas and help him practice the skills he needs to be successful.  And of course, fill the social worker in on what happened so she can offer suggestions for him as well.

If you could benefit from this quick mini-lesson for your students, you can grab it here for free.