Social Skills
Building Community and Social Skills
Many of our students struggle socially. They find it difficult to build meaningful relationships, read social cues, and react appropriately to stress or challenging situations.
Our students are bright, interesting and compassionate people. The challenge for many of them is to express themselves well in reciprocal converstaions. The good news:
- Social skills can be taught, enhanced, and modified through our intentional efforts
- Talisman Semesters offers a unique environment exclusively with kids just like t
hem - We aren’t “rolling enrollment” which means that over the course of a semester, we can assess and help each student individually and within a stable community, which can be incredibly powerful and rewarding.
Talisman Semesters has developed an integrated Social Skills class that complements our school curriculum. All staff work together as a community to support this integral part of our program. Classes are held on a weekly basis, led by the Program Director and tailored to the individual needs of the groups. Together, we work on problem-solving, conflict resolution, conversation skills and self-advocacy. We also recognize each student every day for work well done.
Assessing and Building Skills
A social skills assessment is done to access students’ strengths and weaknesses. The class starts with the basics to ensure a sufficient base for more complicated skills. The curriculum itself is pulled from several sources including programs set up by top professionals in the field.
As students progress through the program and develop new tools and coping strategies, they keep a “tool box” to bring these things back to their home, school, and community. This “tool box” includes their budding independent living skills which are developing concurrently with their social skills. Staff incorporates the tools from the class in all parts of the program to reinforce and transfer these skills into their daily lives.