Connecting with Others

LESSONS

Skill Area 1: Awareness of Self and Others

1. Who Am I?
2. I Feel, Therefore I Am
3. Friendship Is Golden
4. Many Thanks
5. Mutual Admiration Society
   Role-Play: Awareness of Self and Others

Skill Area 2: Communication

1. I Hear You
2. Let’s Talk
3. Communicating without Talking
4. Social Needs, Social Deeds
5. Unpolluted Language
   Role-Play: Communication

Skill Area 3: Responsibility

1. Where Am I Going?
2. I Did It Myself
3. Understanding Directions
4. Let Me Check
5. Taking Responsibility
   Role-Play: Responsibility

Skill Area 4: Self-Advocacy and Assertiveness

1. Help! I Need Somebody
2. Take the First Step
3. Why Should I?
4. Yes Sir, Yes Ma’am, but…
5. I Can Say No to You
   Role Play: Self-Advocacy and Assertiveness

Skill Area 5: Conflict Resolution

1. I Can Say No to Me
2. Try and Try Again
3. Give and Take and Mediate
4. Words Can Sometimes Hurt
5. Room for Improvement
   Role-Play: Conflict Resolution

Skill Area 6: Cooperation and Collaboration

1. Together We Will Overcome
2. Patience Is a Virtue
3. We’re in This Together
4. A Balancing Act
5. What’s Your Type?
   Role-Play: Cooperation and Collaboration

Skill Area 7: Love and Caring

1. Understanding Our Differences
2. A Walk in Your Shoes
3. Many Faces of Love
4. Love and Responsibility
5. With or without Conditions
   Role-Play: Love and Caring

Skill Area 8: Time Management and Organization

1. What Time Is It?
2. Time Flies
3. Time to Relax
4. At Your Best
5. Time for Fun
   Role-Play: Time Management and Organization

Appendices
A: Parent Newsletters
B: Bibliography

FIGURES

Preliminary Lesson

1. Self-Management
2. Sample Duration and Frequency Graphs
3. The Thinking Steps
4. Who, Me?
5. Direct versus Empathetic Assertion
6. Role-Play Review
7. General Review

Skill Area 1: Awareness of Self and Others

8. Multiple Intelligences Worksheet
9. Feelings and Behaviors
10. What Else Could I Do?
11. Thank-You Questions
12. Compliment, Flattery, or Back-Handed Compliment?

Skill Area 2: Communication

13. Rules for Listening
14. Conversation Review
15. Roadblocks and Door Openers
16. Conversation Topics
17. Dialogue Topics
18. Nonverbal Messages
19. Get the Message?
20. Communication Matching
21. Responsible Answers
22. What Would You Do?
23. A Kinder Way

Skill Area 3: Responsibility

24. Goal-Setting Worksheet
25. Your Emotional Quotient
26. Self-Direction Review
27. Understanding Directions
28. Self-Management Review
29. Scott’s New Me
30. Taking Responsibility

Skill Area 4: Self-Advocacy and Assertiveness

31. Who Can Help?
32. Helping Review
33. What Kind of Helping?
34. Let Me Help You
35. Responsibility and Empathy
36. Fair or Unfair?
37. Understanding Empathetic Assertion
38. Help Harry
39. Peer Pressure Situations
40. What Would You Say?
41. Say No?

Skill Area 5: Conflict Resolution

42. Self-Control Assessment
43. Self-Check Chart
44. What Else Could I Do?
45. Real-Life Alternatives
46. Check Your Teasing
47. Hurtful or Friendly Teasing?
48. Johari Window
49. East’s Dilemma
50. Negative Criticism or Positive Criticism?

Skill Area 6: Cooperation and Collaboration

51. Cooperative Group Rules
52. Patience Dilemmas
53. Will This Group Succeed?
54. Different Abilities, Equal Values
55. What’s Your Type?
56. Identifying Personality Types

Sill Area 7: Love and Caring

57. Different but the Same
58. Three Dilemmas
59. What Should I Do?
60. Conditional or Unconditional?
61. What’s Wrong Here?
62. I’ll Love You If . . .

Skill Area 8: Time Management and Organization

63. Looking at Consequences
64. Tardy Tarfin
65. Taminika’s Time Management
66. Relaxation Exercise
67. Stress Awareness
68. Personal Stress Inventory
69. Energy Interview
70. Learning Style Inventory
71. Energy Journal
72. Interest Inventory
73. Leisure Time Review

The Connecting with Others program is an evidence-based curricular approach for developing children’s self-awareness and awareness of others. Each lesson in the four volume series follows a specific lesson cycle and includes instructional materials for each activity. The theoretical underpinnings of the program include Transactional Analysis, Positive Assertion Training, and Cognitive Behavior Modification.

A study utilizing the Connecting with Others Grades K-2 and Grades 3-5 was implemented in five Louisiana public elementary classrooms containing general education and special education students. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether this social skills program would enable students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms to develop skills that would facilitate socialization with peers with and without disabilities. The research question addressed the students’ acquisition of social skills as a result of the training. The results of the study indicated with reasonable assurance that the students did grow in the skill areas identified in the program (Coombs-Richardson et al 2009).

In another study, the program was implemented in two early childhood classrooms located on the campus of a state university in Virginia. This study evaluated the impact of the social skills training on the social behaviors of the children. Participating were 30 students with an average age of four-years ten-months. The income levels of the families varied from low social economic status to high middle economic status. To assess the socio emotional skills level of each child, two examiners independently completed the Social Skills and Attitude Scale (SSAS) which is a component of the Connecting with Others program. The examiners observed the children and recorded children’s pre and post intervention behaviors on a checklist. The study yielded positive evidence that the social skills instruction and activities did make a meaningful difference in increasing targeted social skills of the children (Coombs-Richardson, Myran, and Tonelson 2009).

Two master’s thesis studies were conducted at Wayne State College in Nebraska to study the impact of social skills instruction using the Connecting with Others: Lessons for Teaching Social and Emotional Competence (Richardson 1996a). Hurner (2006) implemented the training in an after school program to determine if it would impact students’ behaviors on their return to their early childhood formal school setting. The general educators filled out rating scales on each of the students before and after the social skills instruction. Twelve of the 18 participating students showed improvement in all five categories. This study provided support for the use of a school-based social skills program to increase the social skills of students with behavior problems and/or difficulties with social interactions. Based on the results of the teachers’ responses, the researchers concluded that the social skills learned in the after-school program were generalized in the school environment.

Social skills training in early childhood sets the stage for students’ future behaviors in schools. Larson (2008) examined the effects of the Connecting with Others curriculum on the behavior of students in an early childhood program. The children received instruction taught by the researcher. Pre and post scales of the BASC-2 Rating Scale (Reynolds and Kamphaus 2005) and the Connecting with Others Rating Scale were used to determine if each child demonstrated progress in their behaviors and/or in their social-emotional skills as a result of the intervention. The instruction had a positive impact on the behaviors of the early childhood students who participated in this study. All 18 participants showed improvement in at least two categories derived from Connecting with Others (Richardson 1996) and improvement in at least one category from the BASC-2. Twelve of the 18 participating students showed improvement in all six of the Connecting with Others (Richardson 1996) categories. Additionally, 13 out of 18 students demonstrated improvement in at least seven of the 13 BASC-2 categories.

• Sample Lesson: Where Am I Going?