A lack of social skills can severely affect a child’s life, hurting him in school and/or in making friends. A child without social skills can have problems in the classroom. It can result in him being shunned by his peers and hurt his self-esteem.
Social skills include an understanding of social rules, for example, that we generally don't give presents to complete strangers, tell them our weight or medical history. While none of these things are terrible sins, poor social skills make it difficult for children to fit in with their classmates without disabilities. As a teenager, keeping information confidential is an important trait in a friend. You are not going to tell personal information to anyone you expect to blurt it out at random to everyone he sees.
Communication is one of the most, if not the most, important social skills. This includes everything from listening to conveying what one wants to stating one’s opinion to understanding what other people are saying and what they mean.
A social skill that all children have trouble with at one time or another, and one that children with learning disabilities are more prone to have difficulty with is listening.
Listening can take a major amount of concentration. Some children with learning disabilities can be very easily distracted or have a shorter attention span than most children as a result of their disability. It is important to help these children in learning how to listen to other people. Eliminating distractions is a key. It might be easier for Tommy to listen in class if he has all of his materials inside his desk. That way he won’t be distracted by his pencil not being sharp enough and then get up in the middle of story time to sharpen it. Little things can make a big difference.
It’s also important here to note that it’s important for teachers and caregivers to be understanding when it comes to children with learning disabilities. It might be easy to get frustrated with a child that repeatedly doesn’t listen or talks out of turn or has a seeming inability to wait in line, but it is important to remember that the child is not at fault for having a learning disability. In fact, the child is probably equally, if not more frustrated by the learning disorder.
Next page: Learning social skills