Social Skills

Social Skills

Social skills is one of my favorite subjects, it is dealing with what I think is an overlapping problem with all children especially special needs children. We only need to look at this as a dual problem and interpret what we know are problems in both areas. The question I think that is most ignored is; What acceptance are children looking for and what do they really need as acceptance. Do they need to feel the peer pressure for the many different things that we know are not good for them or do we need to take control and offer the alternatives that are good for them?

The special needs children can be accepted in their circle of friends, but when it comes to being accepted within the whole circle of school or peers, then that becomes a whole other challenge. Being accepted is developing the social skills needed to be as others and not seem to be different. This is what children do not understand about social skills and how to develop them to handle the different types of social circles within their community.

When dealing with social skills and special needs children, you only have to deal with the ones of no acceptance from children who do not know how to deal with peers that are different from them. They do not realize that everyone is different and you have to deal with all on an individual basis. The problem arises from the fact that special needs children may look different or act differently than they are accustomed to.

We have talked about social skills of acceptance, now lets talk a little about social skills needed for everyday living. We might not think of these so much as social skills, but the ability to prepare food and brush your teeth are personal hygiene skills, it still needs to learned for the ability to be socially accepted. Much of our everyday living skills all lead back to the social skill of being accepted. That is why all the skills especially social skills need to be learned by special needs children in order for survival in society.

Most of us do not understand problems that arise from social skills, because we have developed them so we are accepted and can deal with not being accepted in one group, but accepted in another. Social skills are learned and develop for all types of acceptance in different groups and social standings within the community. When we were children we did not have the skills to be accepting of rejection and to know that the next group will probably accept us with our social skills. I would compare it to the social levels of society and know that the rich society might not accept someone that does not have the money to pay their own way. It requires different levels of income for that society and we mostly accept that as an acceptable social skill.

Social skills are needed for acceptance and are learned in many different areas to be accepted into society. How much social skills are needed for special needs children will depend on their level of need and they can live a very productive life.