Earlier this month I wrote a blog that provided some tips to help classroom and special education teachers help promote an inclusive classroom environment.  This blog builds on that and provides some practical ideas to help all students and particularly those with special needs develop social skills at school.

Students need to feel accepted in the classroom.  Social skills development and peer support play a key role in promoting inclusion in the classroom.  For many students with special education needs, social relationships with their peers are difficult and take time to develop. 

It is certainly true that no teacher can create friendships between students, but it is equally true that every educator can create conditions in the classroom that will give students opportunities to strengthen social relationships, learn about and from each other, and get and give support. These opportunities may then lead to the development of friendships. 

Some tips to help promote this include:

1.      Promote students to get to know each other better. Have the students in your class find out five things about other students. This could include favourite toys, video games, foods, movies, size of their family, number of pets etc. Depending on the age level of the students, the teacher could provide more structure by creating five specific categories to talk about. Have them write down their list and share it with at least two other students in the class. Make sure you leave time for sharing and discussing among the students.

2.      Talk with your students about what makes a good friend. Have students come up with what they think are characteristics of good friends. As a way to organize the thoughts, have a sheet for each student with a simple two column table. The first column asks students about what some of the qualities they look for in a friend. The second column asks students why they would make a good friend to others. Once their list is done, have a discussion with the whole class and emphasize that although we are all different in many ways, we all share the same characteristics that make up a good friend. This will help students realize that they can be good friends with all students, including students with special needs.

3.      Model kindness and empathy in the classroom to show students how good friends act with one another. A way to emphasise this it to assign a writing exercise or journal entry with the prompt, “When a friend calls me a bad name, I feel…” or “What would I do if my best friend fell down and got hurt?” Writing prompts about feelings and kindness will help reinforce how friends should treat each other.

4.      Brainstorm a list of “friendly” words, phrases, and actions, concentrating on words that demonstrate friendships and community. Have students put these words on large word balloons (cardboard cut-outs) and post them around the classroom as a reminder to use “friendly talk” with your friends.

5.      Make a class friendship chain. Cut pieces of 9 x 12-inch construction paper into four vertical strips (each 2 ¼ x 12 inches) to use as links in the chain. Invite students to watch for instances that classmates are being a friend and then write what they saw on a link. Glue or staple the links together in a chain and hang it so that it can begin to encircle the classroom. Make this a year-long activity, adding links, so that the chain “circles the class in friendship.”

6.      Encourage the students to make new friends. Challenge your students to find 2 new friends in your class. Try over a period of two months, and ask students to keep a journal of all the friendship activities they did with their two new friends.  

All children need to feel like they are part of the classroom. Ongoing activities to support inclusion for all students will need to occur daily. You will be surprised at how quickly your regular classroom students support and become friends with all students, including students with special needs.

Crawford Dedman

Special Education Consultant

www.challengingminds.com