Making Friends, PreK-3: A Social Skills Program for Inclusive Settings / Edition 2

by Ruth Herron Ross, Elizabeth L. Roberts-Pacchione

Overview

Helping students develop healthy social skills is child’s play

This newly retitled edition of the popular Wanna Play provides hundreds of fun and updated activities that help children learn how to behave appropriately and make friends. Ideal for teachers, counselors, and behavior therapists, included are tools for teaching emotion regulation, team-playing, and body safety to all children, making this resource an excellent fit for inclusive settings. New features include:

• A social interaction checklist for identifying learners’ strengths and weaknesses
• Teacher-friendly activities that can be used in small groups or with the whole class
• A chapter on emotions

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781412981132
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	01/28/2011
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Ruth Herron Ross, owner and author of The Wanna Play Program, holds a Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood and Elementary Education from Beaver College and a Master of Science in Special Education and Specialty Reading from St. Joseph’s University. She is currently working on her BCBA. Ruth has dedicated her life to the education of children with special needs and the autism community. Ruth has work with children from ages two to seventeen and is trained in a variety of one-on-one early intervention and therapeutic programs such as ABA, Floortime, Son-Rise, and Interactive Metronome. Her 15 years of education experiences, combined with her early intervention training, gave Ruth the foundation of knowledge in autism, language development, and socialization skills needed to create The Wanna Play Program. Over the years she has provided numerous trainings to parents and professional and is a founding member and lead trainer of the Valley Forge Education Services’ community outreach program Caring Kinships: ASD—Matching Families with Sitters. Ruth has been facilitating social skill groups and individual sessions for children as director of the Pennsylvania location for the past ten years and in the New Jersey location for the past two years.

Beth and Ruth have been successfully using their education, personal experience, and passion in children’s social development for over a decade. They found that children were not applying the social skills they had learned into school and community settings. There were few programs dealing with socialization that accommodated children on many different interactive levels. They developed a curriculum that was flexible and easily personalized for the specific needs of each child. This insight has evolved into The Wanna Play Program.

Ruth Herron Ross and Beth Roberts have been successfully using The Wanna Play Program’s techniques with children for over a decade. They have lectured in schools, parent support groups and conferences on the program’s benefits and application. They have been training teachers, parents, professional and children on social skills as well as the methodology and teaching guidelines suggested in the program.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Introduction: Welcome to the Wanna Play Program
Guidelines for Curriculum Success
How to Use this Book
Social Interaction Checklist
Unit 1: Discovering Social Skills
Lesson 1.1: What Are Social Skills?
Lesson 1.2: Making New Friends
Lesson 1.3: Building Friendships
Lesson 1.4: Relationships With Different Types of Friends
Unit 2: Using Appropriate Eye Contact for Interaction
Lesson 2.1: What Is Eye Contact?
Lesson 2.2: Looking to Talk
Lesson 2.3: Looking to Listen
Lesson 2.4: Looking to Learn
Lesson 2.5: Interest in Others
Unit 3: Social Skills for Interacting With Friends
Lesson 3.1: Fun With Friends
Lesson 3.2: Sweet Words/ Kind Words
Lesson 3.3: Safe Body/ Body Safety
Lesson 3.4: Playing Together
Unit 4: Appropriate Body Behavior
Lesson 4.1: Introduction to Body Awareness
Lesson 4.2: Body Needs—Strengths and Weaknesses
Lesson 4.3: Personal Play Space
Lesson 4.4: Body Privacy
Lesson 4.5: Modesty/Hygiene
Lesson 4.6: Appropriate Bodies in Different Environments
Unit 5: Appropriate Emotional Behavior
Lesson 5.1: What Are Emotions and How Do We Show Them?
Lesson 5.2: Choosing How We React
Lesson 5.3: Staying Calm When We Don't Get Along
Lesson 5.4: Appropriate Ways of Sharing Our Emotions
Unit 6: Appropriate Behavior in a Group
Lesson 6.1: Listening in a Group
Lesson 6.2: Socializing With Peers in a Group
Lesson 6.3: Learning in a Group
Lesson 6.4: Following Directions in Groups
Unit 7: Playing Games
Lesson 7.1: Sportsmanship/Cheering and Encouragement
Lesson 7.2: Going First
Lesson 7.3: Who Won?
Lesson 7.4: Playing Friends' Games
Lesson 7.5: Outside Games
Lesson 7.6: Indoor Games
Appendix A: Friendship Cards
Appendix B: Worksheets and Materials

Editorial Reviews

"The overall attitude is fun, upbeat, and positive, as the guidelines stress the adults involved should be, and involves facilitated free play where the adult actively observes interactive play and looks for opportunities to offer prompts from the lessons and activities. "

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