Social Skills: Building Blocks for the Future 1

Social Skills: Building Blocks for the Future

Integrative Assignment Part B
James Madison University
Spring 2017
Social Skills: Building Blocks for the Future 2

Historical Efforts on the Topic of Social Skills

Social competence is a term that reflects social judgement about the

general quality of an individuals performance in a given situation. Within

this, social skills are the specific and identifiable basis of this socially

competent behavior. These terms are commonly used in reference to

children who are in their developmental stages of learning these social

competencies and skills. Students who lack these social skills experience

both short and long-term negative consequences, which have the potential

to greatly impact their futures. Elliott and Busse (1991) proposed five main

clusters of social skills behavior. These include cooperation, assertion,

responsibility, empathy, and self-control (CARES). Cooperation refers to

helping others, sharing, and abiding by the rules. Assertion includes

initiating behaviors, asking for things, and responding to behaviors of others.

Responsibility incorporates communication with adults and demonstration of

care. Empathy is showing concern for the feelings of others and lastly, self-

control is the ability to respond appropriately to conflict or corrective

feedback from an adult (1991). In order for students have a strong

foundation in social competencies and skills, they must be able to learn and

apply these characteristics within the classroom to ensure that they are able

to create positive relationships with others and move forward with increased

school engagement.
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Over the years, social skills are a topic that has become intertwined

with a variety of other counseling related subjects in order to enhance

students skills and abilities for their future. Social skills have been paired

with focuses such as academic and social achievement, college and career

readiness, attendance, bullying, coping skills, and much more. Additionally,

social skills have been matched with a variety of disorders such as autism,

depression, and anxiety, based on the individual students needs. Each of

these topics incorporates social proficiency as a foundational necessity to

helping students become successful learners and future citizens. The ability

to interact appropriately with peers, faculty, and other adults will not only

help students developmentally, but will also enhance their academic and

career focused aspirations and goals. Although it is much less common to

see social skills studied truly on its own, there have been a variety of studies

integrating these skills into students lives in order to help enhance their

perspective of themselves and others.

One such study that incorporates academic achievement and social

skills with the overall goal student success is Building Skills for School

Success: Improving the Academic and Social Competence of Students,

implemented by Greg Brigman, Linda Webb, and Chari Campbell from Florida

Atlantic University. This study was published by the American School

Counseling Association with the goal of evaluating any academic and social

competency changes in students while taking part in a counselor-led Student

Success Skills program (2007). The Student Success Skills (SSS) Program
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was grounded in positive social skills and academic achievement strategies.

The National Standards for School Counseling Program that was created in

1997 promoted making these connections between academic and school

counseling standards, which grounded this study based on national

initiatives.

The skills chosen for the SSS program include cognitive and

metacognitive skills such as goal setting, progress monitoring, and memory

skills, social skills such as interpersonal skills, problem solving, listening, and

teamwork, and self-management skills such as managing attention,

motivation, and anger. Similar to others, these skills support social-

emotional learning as well as student academic needs. Students between

grades fifth and ninth participated in this study and were randomly assigned

to a control and treatment group. The students met in groups once a week

for eight weeks to receive the combined social-emotional and academic

learning skills. Students were assessed at the end of each group session

where they self-reported progress toward specific cognitive, social, and self-

management skills using an instrument called the Seven Keys to Mastering

Any Course. It was found that the SSS program was significantly linked to

improved achievement and behavioral student outcomes (Brigman, Webb, &

Campbell, 2007). These findings support social skills as a foundational basis

for children to continue through their schooling at a developmentally

appropriate level and move toward their individual goals.

In addition to academic comparisons, social skills has also been linked

Social Skills: Building Blocks for the Future 5

to behavioral issues that have the potential to impact students future

performance. Rhoda Gouin performed a study titled, The Relationship

Between Learning Self-Regulation Skills and Improved Performance in

Reading and Language Arts for Middle School Students in which the

relationship between self-regulation skills, academic performance, and

discipline referrals (2007). According to Gouin, self-regulation refers to how a

person makes choices and controls his or her responses to achieve desired

goals, which can easily become intertwined with the definition of social skills.

In this study, seventh and eighth grade students received self-regulation

strategies instruction incorporated into their regular classroom curriculum

after the teachers received professional development training on the topic.

The results of the study indicated that the students who received the self-

regulation incorporation had increased reading and language arts

standardized scores and there were noticeably fewer behavior and discipline

referrals (2007). Self-regulation, as a part of the Elliot and Busses five main

clusters, can ultimately provide opportunities for students to improve

academics, self-control, motivation, and goal setting.

Interventions Process

I am currently interning at Elkton Middle School where I was assigned a

group of eight grade boys for a lunch group. The group consists of four boys,

each with their own needs. We meet once a week during the boys lunch
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block, which created its own challenges for the set curriculum. The group

was specifically created with one boy in mind, who is on the autism

spectrum. With this in mind, the topic of social skills is broadened to

encompass the individual students own self-awareness, how they interact

with others, and how they make decisions and set goals. Each of these

aspects comprises the different ways that students understand their own

emotions and how they interact and impact those around them.

After meeting with the group for the first time and getting to know

them better, I decided to focus our time on incorporating social skills and

future goals. This will allow the students to ideally recognize and make the

connections between their future aspirations and their foundation in social

adjustment. During our second meeting, we focused on identifying future

goals for each student. I did not put many restrictions on this goal, other

than that it was attainable for them over the next five years. This allowed

the students to have an idea or image in their mind during the rest of our

time together to focus on when we discussed how we the skill we were

currently working on can apply to their futures. The group lessons I created

built upon one another, beginning with thinking about their own social

support networks, what a friend looks like, all the way to solving friendship

problems and putting these skills into practice.

Much of the measurement involved in these interventions requires self-

reporting from the students as well as my own measurement of the students

progress and interactions with others throughout the sessions. The students
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completed a survey before beginning the social skills lessons in order to

measure their own perceived friendship skills as well as their own challenges

and strengths. This gave me a sense of their confidence in certain areas and

the areas that they felt they would like to improve upon. As we began

moving through the lessons at each of our meetings, I documented my own

assessments of each students individual participation and perceived

understanding of the concepts during the group session. These

assessments, along with the pre and post surveys, helped show the groups

growth and increased confidence in the skills we were working on throughout

the sessions.

These types of interventions can be seen impacting the school as a

whole in numerous ways. As previously discussed, social skills can be

connected and have an impact on a variety of topics that are essential to the

students present skill sets as well as their future accomplishments.

Presently, these interventions would be assessed at the programmatic level

based on a decreased number of behavior reports and a change in the

overall level of respect seen in the classrooms and a continued self-

sustaining culture of friendship within the school. While the decreased

number of behavioral reports is a measurable and observable change, the

levels of respect and the friendship culture are observable changes that will

be seen more often by teachers in the classroom. In order to make these

interventions applicable and impacting for the school or grade level as a

whole, I would send out a survey to each student through their individual
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google accounts to collect data about their confidence in social skills, their

ability to set goals, and their overall self-esteem and self-efficacy. I would

then combine the plans I have already created into classroom lessons, where

I would visit individual classes multiple times throughout the semester. This

would allow me more one-on-one time with the students in their classroom

setting. Similar to the lunch group outline, the classroom lessons would

discuss goal setting, what friendship means, how to hold a conversation and

maintain relationships, and how to solve conflicts. After completing the

lessons with each class, I would reassess the students and compare the

results. These changes would allow me to to impact the school as a whole

and impact a larger group of students.

How does this help?

Successful social skills are a foundational necessity for all students to

be able to form and keep relationships with others, which ultimately parallels

with academic, behavioral, and career success. Friendship and relationship

skills are qualities that begin formation at a young age and are continually

used as the child develops and moves toward the stage in life in which they

are able to become productive citizens. The College and Career

Development Organizer, created by the National High School Center outlines

five social and emotional core competencies that form a basis for social

success. These competencies include self-awareness, self-management,

Social Skills: Building Blocks for the Future 9

social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making

(Dymnicki, Sambolt, & Kidron, 2013). These skills, which revolve around the

awareness of self and others, allow students to regulate their emotions,

make ethical choices, resolve conflicts, and avoid engaging in risky

behaviors. These competencies are incorporated into the social skills group

interventions by creating an environment in which the students are able to

openly discuss and practice these characteristics.

While some students acquire social skills more naturally, other

students may struggle with these foundational skills longer than most. A

social skills group allows students not only the opportunity to practice

carrying conversation, building, and maintaining relationships, but also gives

them a space to form these relationships with students who they may

otherwise would not have interacted with. This structured, yet relaxed,

space alone can be the starting point for many students to begin learning

more about themselves and how they want to exist in the world. Students

move differently through these ideas as they mature and grow

developmentally, but are given the opportunity alongside the interventions

to begin taking what they have learned and putting it into practice for the

future.

Each of the competencies outlined ultimately contributes to graduation

rates and college and career readiness through their connections to sound

decision making and the ability to connect and form relationships with

others. The National Center for Education Statistics recorded that although
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74.9 percent of high school students graduate with a diploma in the US,

3,030,000 students dropped out of high school in 2011 (Education Week,

Children Trends Database, 2012). An educational foundation in social and

emotional learning can help combat these trends and begin providing

students with interpersonal skills for the future. From these interactive social

skills, students begin improving upon academic engagement, higher-order

thinking, teamwork, and organization skills. With these in hand, students

begin building their own self-confidence to be able to move through life on

an equal playing field alongside others with regards to their attitudes and

abilities. Many times, social contact and networking is the key to promotions

and career opportunities. This is highlighted throughout the social skills

interventions to ensure that students are able to connect the tangible skills

to real life situations that they may encounter in the future.

Strengths and Challenges

When considering the stakeholders for this type of program, a wide

variety of individuals come to mind. At the school based level, the

stakeholders would include the faculty and administrators. The goals for this

type of intervention process includes an increased culture of friendship and

comradery among the students as well as a decrease in behavioral reports.

Both of these outcomes directly involve the teachers and administrators at

the school and potentially at the district level. These type of results would
Social Skills: Building Blocks for the Future 11

help motivate the continued use of these interventions in the group setting.

With successful results, teacher and administrative support would open

doors to the possibility of using these approaches on a larger scale and

incorporating them into the classroom. The foundation in communication

and higher-order thinking skills required within the interventions can then be

used in a variety of ways to prepare students to become successful future

citizens. On the other hand, a downside to this approach would be the

resources necessary to implement it on a larger scale. Teachers and

administrators would need to be trained in social and emotional learning,

which can cause difficulty due to the money and time needed to provide this

service. Barriers such as this can be resolved creatively, such as through

grant funding or other forms of training. Once implemented on the larger

scale in schools, the stakeholders can become involved in the group

intervention profess by sitting in on the lessons and communicating with the

school counselors about ways in which the interventions applied in group can

also be applied in the classroom. It is important for students to see how

strategies can be applied and used in multiple settings in order for concepts

to fully concretize in their minds.

On a broader scale, members of the community and the administration

from central office would be other stakeholders involved and impacted by

these types of interventions. The goals and results of decreased behavioral

reports and an increase in positive school culture would reflect positively on

the school district and the community as a whole. Initially, a challenge could
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be creating community buy-in for the program. Similar to using the

strategies in the group and in the classroom, it would be important for

students to see support for increased social and emotional learning from

their families and community. The students would see the strategies used

outside of school, which would continue to promote their use and impact for

the student. The community would continually benefit from this approach as

the students graduate and leave the school with a set of skills that will make

them an asset to the career workforce. Social skills may seem like a basic,

assumed set of abilities, but ultimately much of individual success can be

attributed to a well-known set of talents and the relationships formed with

others.

References

Brigman, G., Webb, L., & Campbell, C. (2007). Building Skills for School
Success: Improving the Academic and Social Competence of Students.
Professional School Counseling, 10(3), 279-288.
doi:10.5330/prsc.10.3.v850256191627227

DataBank by Life Stage. (2012). Retrieved April 06, 2017, from

https://www.childtrends.org/databank-indicators/databank-by-life-
stage/

Dymnicki, A., Sambolt, M., & Kidron, Y. (2013). Improving College And Career
Readiness Through Challenge-Based Learning. American Institute for
Research.

Elliott, S. N., & Busse, R. T. (1991). Social skills assessment and intervention
with children
and adolescents: Guidelines for assessment and training procedures.
School Psychology
International, 12, 6383.
Social Skills: Building Blocks for the Future 13

Gouin, R. (2012). The Relationship Between Learning Self-Regulation Skills

and Improved Performance in Reading and Language Arts for Middle
School Students. UI.