Full Description
Praise for the author:
'Deborah Plummer uses imagination and empowerment to move children and adults from discouragement to success.'
- The Canadian Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Review
'Deborah Plummer shows a fundamental respect for a child's integrity whilst making sure her language and ideas are accessible to a wide range of people.'
- Afasic News
Featuring a wealth of familiar and easy-to-learn games, this practical handbook is designed to foster successful social strategies for children aged 5-12, and will help adults to understand and reflect constructively on children's social skills.
The book covers the theory behind the games in accessible language, and includes a broad range of enjoyable activities: active and passive, verbal and non-verbal, and for different sized groups. Deborah Plummer addresses issues that might arise when supporting children with a range of communication differences, including children with learning differences, and offers a variety of cognitive and behavioural strategies to help children to reinforce the skills explored in the games.
This is an ideal resource for teachers, parents, carers and all those working to improve the social skills of children.
Contents
Foreword by Professor Jannet Wright, De Montfort University. Part One: Theoretical and Practical Background. 1. Introduction. 2. Understanding Social Skills. 3. Why Use Games to Support Social Skills? 4. Structuring the Emotional Environment. 5. Transfer and Maintenance of Skills. 6. Self-reflection and Self-care. Bibliography. References. Part Two: Games for Social Skills. 7. Non-competitive Ways to Choose Groups and Group Leaders. 8. Getting to Know Each Other: Warm-ups and Ice-breakers. 9. Staying on Track: Self-awareness and Self-control. 10. Tuning in: Exploring Effective Listening and Effective Observation. 11. More than Just Talking: Communication Skills. 12. You and Me: Exploring Feelings and Developing Empathy. 13. You and Me Together: Building Co-operation and Negotiation Skills. 14. Got It!: Solving Problems in Group Interactions. 15. Wind Down and Celebrations. Appendix. Subject Index. Author Index. Acknowledgements.
