Hunt for Social Skills in LD Children

http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/pages/huntsocialssa.html 

                                         Answers to the questions:

1. Very early in the year children should be introduced to new concepts.  It should be done during a regular discussion period, not during a crisis. 

2. Individual characteristics and innate traits, academic failure, and social failure.

3. Skill-based - exists when a student has not learned how to perform a given behavior

Performance-based - exists when the student possesses a skill but doesn't perform it under the desired circumstances

Motivational - exists when the student possesses the appropriate skill, but doesn't desire to perform it.

Discrimination - exists when the child doesn't know when to exhibit the desired behavior.

4. -It does not teach appropriate behavior

-the child may develop a set of inappropriate behaviors in order to avoid punishment

-the child may adapt to punishment

5. Rejected, isolated, controversial, popular.

Learning disabled find themselves in the rejected or isolated groups.

6. When a sequence of instruction is used that includes a description of the social behaviors, modeling of them, verbal practice in naming them, and individual feedback. 

7. The use of children's literature, direct instruction of steps to follow, practice in the natural environment, and evaluation of the lesson and skills

8. Attention, organization, language, general information, time, basic skills, and emotion

9. Achievement stress - rarely detected, but generally gets worse as children progress through school

Warning signals- sudden dramatic increase or decrease in effort in school, major change in attitude, withdrawal or outbursts, problems sleeping, headaches, stomachaches, loss of appetite or excessive eating, antisocial or disruptive behaviors

Possible causes- school factors and special education factors

10. LD students are more likely to make external attributions for both success and failure and have lower global self concepts than their non-disabled peers. 

11. How he experiences himself at mastering skills and absorbing information; how others see him and let him know about himself; how he compares himself to others in terms of mastering a new skill. 

12. Teachers must constantly communicate to students that mistakes are part of the learning process and no one should ever feel embarrassed to ask questions if they don't understand something.