Mrs. Johnson's School Psychology blog: April 2015

Ahhhhh, spring is here! The warm weather has finally arrived and the students are so happy to be playing outside without all that snow equipment! With the warm weather comes an increase of free space and playing new games (which is awesome-of course). However, we usually see a bit of an increase in some social conflicts. Through this post, I hope to provide some communication about the language we use here at Wheelock and also some tools you can use at home to support social problem solving.

Here at Wheelock we use both Open Circle and the Social Thinking curriculums to help teach our students how to navigate social conflicts and promote their emotional development. There are different types of social problems and all the classes use a 1-5 point scale (tiny-huge) in conjunction with terms like ‘double d’ (destructive and dangerous) behaviors, to help educate students.

We encourage our students to solve 1-3 point problems on their own using expected language (ex. teasing and/or 1x conflict) by using a calm & firm voice to stick up for yourself. However, we put great importance on the fact that they should always tell a trusted adult right away if the issue is a ‘double d’ (destructive or dangerous-4 point problem) and/or the situation does not get resolved when they tried to use their words. One way to stick up for yourself is by using “I statements”, for example- “I felt upset because the rules were not followed, next time I hope we can figure out the rules before we start the game”. Here is a great visual to support this: