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Strategies to Support the Social Skills Development of Students with Learning

Disabilities in the Elementary Social Studies Classroom

Introduction

Students are often expected to come to school possessing certain academic and

social skills, both deemed essential for school success. Despite these expectations, a

number of students experience academic and social skills deficits (Mastropieri and

Scruggs 2010; Smith and Tyler 2010). This is particularly true for students with learning

disabilities (LD). It is estimated that roughly 75% of LD students suffer various

manifestations of social skills deficits (Kavale and Forness 1995). Though approximately

62% of LD students spend roughly 80% of their day in the general education classrooms

(U.S. Department of Education 2008), time constraints, the pressure to produce academic

gains, and a general lack of vision regarding the importance of social skill instruction and

acquisition often force teachers to deemphasize social skill competence (Johns, Crowley,

and Guetzloe 2005; Womack, Marchant, and Borders 2011).

Yet given the lack of direct social skills instruction, the classroom is nevertheless

a social environment in which all students must navigate. Successful learning requires

students to work closely with teachers and peers. Thus the classroom—particularly the

elementary classroom, where young students are introduced to certain social conventions

(e.g. interacting with other students in both formal and informal ways)—becomes an

essential avenue for social skills development and demonstration (Sahin 2010; Steedly,

Schwartz, Levin, and Luke 2008). It can then be argued that the ideal environment for

social skills development is in the elementary social studies classroom. With engagement,

collaboration, discussion and disagreement embedded in the fabric of sound social studies

design and delivery, students are offered multiple opportunities to understand the content
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through the use of mixed modalities, and demonstrate their resultant understanding(s)

through multiple means of active participation. This article will articulate the seamless

ways in which the elementary social studies classroom can be used to support the social

skills development of all students. A particular emphasis will be given to students with

learning disabilities.

Social Skills Defined

Social skills are aspects or components of behavior that help individuals

understand and adapt to various social settings (Steedly, Schwartz, Levin, and Luke

2008). Walker (1983, 27) defines social skills as “a set of competencies that a) allow an

individual to initiate and maintain positive social relationships, b) contribute to peer

acceptance and to a satisfactory school adjustment, and c) allow an individual to cope

effectively within a larger social environment.” Gresham and Eliot (1990) describe social

skills as the ways in which individuals positively interact with others so as to avoid

negative or undesirable results. Further, Akkök (1996) classifies social skills into several

distinct categories:

 Skills for Initiating and Continuing Relationships: Listening, initiating and

continuing a conversation; introducing oneself; asking for help; giving directions.

 Skills for Teamwork: Trying to understand the other’s views; assuming and

sharing responsibility; striving for a common goal.

 Feeling-Oriented Skills: Understanding one’s own feelings; expressing feelings;

understanding the feeling of others.

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 Skills for Problem Solving and Planning: Collecting information either

individually or by group; asking for other’s opinions; weighing all options;

sharing in the planning process.

Simply, social skills are the specific, identifiable, and discrete actions and responses

students’ need to navigate and negotiate social conventions both inside and outside of the

classroom.

Social Skills and Students with Learning Disabilities

As previously stated, roughly 75% of students with learning disabilities struggle

with social skills. Deficits in social skills are now considered a defining characteristic of

students with learning disabilities. Such struggles are often manifest through the inability

to make and sustain peer friendships, a reduced self-concept, awkward or absent

interpersonal skills, a resistance to social adjustment, and a lack of motivation towards

school (Bryan, Burstein, and Ergul 2004; Kavale and Mostert 2004). It is often difficult

for the LD student to “read” facial expressions and “gauge” body language. They have

difficulty initiating (e.g. asking to participate) and responding to initiations (e.g.

following an invitation to participate) when compared to their non-disabled classmates

(Agaliotis and Kalyva 2006). Their school-based peers often perceive such students as

overly dependent, less cooperative, and socially awkward and, thus, are routinely rejected

by their classmates in participating in playground activities or classroom groups (Kuhne

and Wiener 2000; Norwicki 2003).

A crippling and often sustained manifestation of social skills deficit is the

resultant impact on academic performance. Students who don’t understand or don’t

conform to the classroom dynamics struggle to become productive learners. Such

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students “become prone to feelings of diminished self-worth, become easily discouraged,

quickly disappointed, less resilient, and more distractible and off-task when confronted

with academic challenges in the classroom” (Morris 2002, 68). This social and academic

marginalization naturally leads to a marked disinterest in school. Without proper social

skills training, students risk succumbing, not solely to the effects of social ostracism, but

to the spiral of academic failure as well.

Teaching Social Skills

According to Seevers and Jones-Blank (2008), “Children and adolescents with

disabilities sometimes have behaviors that are awkward or unacceptable in social

situations. The lack of appropriate social skill behaviors may be a characteristic of their

disability. With this said, teachers . . . need to teach students with disabilities how to act

and react in social situations” (1). As there is no direct evidence that social skills are

systematically being taught in schools, and since the vast majority of LD students

evidence social skills deficits, social skills instruction must become an ingrained and

sustained part of the school curriculum (Cartledge 2005). With the advent of inclusion,

the responsibility to teach social skills falls most directly with general education teachers

who are encountering increasing numbers of students with learning disabilities in their

classroom.

Bullock and Fitzsimmons-Lovett (1997) offer the following guidelines when

incorporating social skills instruction in the classroom:

 Teach a specific skill (e.g. listening; cooperation; stating an opinion) at a time.

 Demonstrate and model the skill.

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 Have students practice the skill by role-playing. Provide several different

scenarios whereby students can “see” the skill in action across a spectrum of

possibilities.

 Provide immediate feedback and reinforcement to the successful demonstration of

the target skill.

 Provide opportunities for students to demonstrate their skill progression

throughout the year, as skill instruction must be systemic and sustained.

The goal of social skills training is to enable students to recognize and demonstrate

proper social interactions. It is desired that such interactions will lead to an increase in

both social competence and academic success.

Social Studies and Social Skills

There is a growing link between special education and social studies. The

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (1990) reaffirmed that students with

disabilities should be taught in the least restrictive environment. This environment has

progressively been seen as the general education classroom. Premised on the inclusion

model of instruction, more students with learning disabilities are accessing general

education classrooms than ever before. This rise is particularly evident in social studies

classrooms where more LD students receive instruction than any other content area

(Schweder 2011). With three-quarters of LD students possessing social skills deficits, the

role of social studies educators becomes imperative.

But what role can social studies play in social skills development? According to

Sahin (2010) the ideal context (and content) in which to facilitate social skills

development is in the social studies classroom. Here, social studies provides

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opportunities for students to situate themselves in the past and, by doing so, understand

the motives and actions of others. It also encourages students to become actively engaged

in the present. Most importantly, and with particular relevance to early elementary

grades, social studies instills the foundational social skills necessary for students to

become informed, engaged, confident, and productive citizens.

So how do we engage our students? An essential cornerstone of engaging social

studies is student action. Here, students become active consumers, if you will, of the

content at hand. They analyze, interpret, critique, and discuss. Passivity—most often in

the form of teacher-centered instruction dominated by textbooks, chalkboards, and

worksheets—is replaced by rich, sustained, and varied participatory and collaborative

opportunities. Hands are raised. Questions are asked. Issues, events, and actions are

pondered. Such inquiry-based instruction allows students to formulate and articulate their

own opinions while listening to and considering the opinions of their classmates (Harris

2002). The inherent participatory and collaborative nature of inquiry-based social studies

instruction naturally facilitates the development of an array of social skills (Beal and

Mason Bolick 2013) including, amongst others, listening, articulating, taking and sharing

responsibility and respecting the opinions of others.

Strategies to Increase Social Skill Development

There are a number of strategies general education teachers can use to facilitate

the social skills development of students with learning disabilities in the elementary

social studies classroom. Though germane to LD students in particular, such strategies

are ultimately beneficial to all students.

Establishing a classroom community

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Classroom community can generally be described as a safe and supporting space

where teachers and students can express their attitudes, values, and behaviors without the

fear of ridicule and/or retribution. Such environments facilitate both independence and

collaboration and teach positive social skills that transfer into academic advances

(Comer, 1997; Hallinan, Kubitschek, and Liu 2009).

The link between establishing a classroom community and the ideals and

practices evidenced through interactive and engaging social studies is seamless. Pohan

(2003) states that classroom community equips students with the knowledge, skills, and

dispositions needed for participation in a diverse and democratic society. Qualities such

as respect, responsibility, integrity, problem-solving and trust are cornerstones to both

community and democracy. If students are to understand democracy—with its inherent

rights, rituals, and responsibilities— they need to experience democracy in their

classroom. Creating a democratic classroom community fulfills this need.

Teacher questioning

Teachers need to ask a variety of questions, including multiple response,

application, evaluative and factual. To address social skills building, questions need to

move beyond factual (“Who was the President of the United States during the Civil

War?”), and focus more on the relationships and interactions inherent throughout social

studies. “It seems those two really didn’t get along. Did they have anything in common?”

Or, “Can you see where Chief Seattle was coming from?” Ultimately, the simple

objective is to get hands in the air and voices shared. Yet the types of questions teachers

ask—ones that encourage connection and commonality—can go a long way in fostering

social skills.
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Student questioning

Just as teachers need to ask questions, so too, do students. Though the questions

young learners ask are often presented as yes or no (“Did George Washington really have

wooden teeth?”) or short response (“Why was it called the Gilded Age?”), the objective

here is not to evaluate the level or depth of the question but to allow students to simply

ask them. Encourage all students to enter the conversation. Facilitate purposeful (and

systemic) ways in which all students have multiple chances to contribute. The easiest way

to develop social skills competence is through direct student participation.

Cooperative learning

In both the social studies (Brophy, Alleman, and Halvorsen 2013; Farris 2012;

Nagel 2008; Schul 2011) and special education (Bryant, Smith, and Bryant 2008;

Kennedy, Linwick, and Vercell 2000; Mastropieri and Scruggs 2010) literature,

cooperative learning supports social skills development. More than mere group work,

cooperative learning promotes structured social interaction through collaboration.

Interdependence amongst students is facilitated and encouraged. Farris (2012) reminds us

that, quite simply, students “must learn to work together with their peers through

cooperative and collaborative efforts” (25).

In a seminal study by Jenkins, Antil, Wayne, and Vadsey (2003), the authors

examined the practices and perceptions of general educators’ use of cooperative learning

and the impact it had on the students with disabilities in their respective classrooms. In

general, teachers responded that cooperative learning led to broader student participation,

more active learning, and an increase in task initiation and completion. They felt that

cooperative learning enhanced listening skills and increased student respect for others
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and for other points of view. With respect to students with disabilities, the authors

concluded that cooperative learning increased self-esteem, provided a safe learning

environment, and led to increased academic performance. Though the authors cautioned

that group selection (i.e. the composition of the group itself) is essential for students with

disabilities to benefit form cooperative learning.

There are a handful of specific cooperative learning activities that directly support

social skills development:

 Think-Pair-Share: Arguably the easiest form of collaborative learning, students

are provided varying depictions (photographs, editorials, personal narratives) of

urban immigrant life at the turn of the twentieth century. The teacher then asks,

“What was immigrant life like?” After formulating individual responses premised

on the materials provided, students are paired or grouped and asked to share their

conclusions. Each pair or small group ultimately shares their findings with the

entire class.

 Jigsaw: Here, students are assigned to both their “home” team and to another

study group. Content is divided into small, inter-related sections. For example,

when studying the American Revolution, content could be divided into sections

concerning the American Army, the American Navy, foreign aid, and the

Loyalists. Each member is assigned a number. All the “1s” get together to study

about the American Army. All “2s” study content about the Loyalists. This way,

each group member becomes an expert in his or her assigned content area. After

ample time, each member returns to their “home” group and teaches his or her

assigned content to their home group members (Chapin 2013).

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 Small Group Collaboration: With small group collaboration, students are divided

into groups of three to five members depending upon class size. Each group is

assigned a subtopic pertinent to the content at hand. From here, each student

produces specific information that contributes to the collective understanding of

their shared subtopic. For example, students are assigned to create an historical

newspaper about the Civil War. One student will write a letter to the editor.

Another will draw a political cartoon. A third will write a column describing a

particular battle or event. Each group will then present their collaborative project

to their classmates (Shul 2011).

Schul (2011) contends that democratic citizenship—the philosophical cornerstone of

social studies policy and practice—is best understood and exhibited through cooperative

endeavors. It is in the social studies classroom that we ask students to model such

democratic principles as participation, collaboration, discussion and respect. Such

principles and practices, found in powerful social studies classrooms, can seamlessly be

interpreted as social skills.

Role-Play

With role-play, students assume the persona or someone or something else. Such

characters may be real or fictitious, a specific person (Harriet Tubman) or a type of

person (returning veteran), an animal, object, or even an abstract idea (“What will be

‘history’ in 2030?”). Turner (2013) offers some scenarios to engage students through

role-play:

 An early explorer trying to convince his men to go with him into unchartered

waters.
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 A female suffragette protester being heckled by male and female bystanders.

 The process by which a bill becomes a law.

 The enactors of the Boston Tea Party.

 The Pilgrims deciding to stay in Plymouth despite terrible loss.

As with any activity that affords social skills development for students with disabilities,

teachers need to be particularly cognizant of their students’ social “comfort level” and the

role(s) they are ultimately assigned to play. There are many “behind-the-scenes” roles

that will provide excellent social skills-building opportunities. Students can work

together to write the script, create the props, or design the costumes used during the role-

play. It is essential that teachers provide meaningful and “comfortable” opportunities for

all students to be socially successful. Remember, not every student has to be—or wants to

be—an actor.

Individual and/or group oral presentations

Even for the best of us, speaking in front of our peers can be intimidating. The

ability to express ideas in a public forum is central to democratic participation. It is also,

quite simply, an integral part of social interaction. The best way to introduce students to

oral presentations is to start with a large group and require small objectives. Each

member of the group is to state one simple fact they learned about the social studies

content. In time, reduce the number of students in the group while slowly increasing the

amount (and quality) of information they share. Eventually, students will be asked to

present individually. The key is to provide slow transitions from group to individual

presentation.
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Yet there will invariably be a handful of students that are still socially

uncomfortable when presenting before their classmates. Here are a few suggestions to

support oral presentation skill development:

 Allow students to make their initial presentation just to the teacher. Students can

slowly transition into making their oral presentation before a small group of

students. In time, students will be asked to make their presentation to the entire

class.

 Have students tape-record their presentation. Though they are not benefitting

from direct social interaction, students are building confidence in their ability to

communicate effectively.

 Instead of standing in the front of the class, allow students to make their

presentation from their desk. This greatly reduces anxiety.

 The teacher (or a trusted friend) stands by the student during the presentation and

offers encouragement.

Though the majority of student presentations are made orally, there are other ways in

which students can demonstrate their understanding(s) of the social studies content

(Parker 2009). Presentations can be written, drawn, colored, danced, sung or video-taped.

Regardless of format, presentations support the social skills development of all students.

Conclusion

Though the majority of students enter school with appropriate social skills, many

do not. This is particularly true for students with learning disabilities. As such students

are entering the general education classroom in greater numbers, it becomes increasingly

important for teachers to facilitate (and teach) social skills development. A natural place
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to do so is in the social studies classroom. Premised on rich and sustained collaboration

and rooted in participatory-based instruction, social studies seamlessly bridges content

understanding and skill development by allowing all students multiple opportunities to

practice the underlying principles of democratic citizenship—respect, understanding, and

cooperation.

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