Elementary Social Skills Group Curriculum - 40 Lessons Speech Therapy ASD HFA

When I began working in the public schools, I quickly realized that there was a great need for social skills groups. Not sure where to begin, I purchased tons of books on the subject. However, most programs out there didn’t meet my needs – the lessons and activities were either too challenging / not engaging / too easy / required materials that you had to make yourself / etc. Over the last three years I have taught elementary level social skills groups by piece-mealing my very own curriculum, and developed my own lessons and activities. This summer, I finally sat down and typed it up, adding many more ready-to-use materials and activities.

The finished result is a resource that is (hopefully!) easy to use and can be used with different elementary populations to work on social skills.

Priced at about $1.50 per lesson, this bundle contains 40 lesson plans and 252 supplemental activities for Elementary level social skills groups. Each lesson is designed to last between 30 – 60 minutes (although you can adjust the length of the session by doing multiple of the included activities). This would be appropriate for Speech therapists, school counselors, school psychologists, and other special education personnel. I have used these lessons with students from 1st - 5th grade, but they could probably be used throughout middle or high school as well.

Each lesson contains a variety of activities to choose from so that you can pick the one that most suits the group you are teaching and your teaching style. While some of these activities involve relevant children’s books and require that you own the book, most of the activities are original creations by myself.

Each lesson is set up as follows: Students are being taught the skill during a whole group discussion. The second part of each lesson is composed of 3-13 activities. The activity sections will hopefully grow over time as I discover more things to do with my groups.

****Make sure to look at the preview for a detailed breakdown of a lesson.*** (The preview lesson covers “Teasing”)

Please note: There is one lesson that requires the book “Have You Filled A Bucket Today” by Carol McCloud (you could access this book through YouTube, the link is included).

After purchasing and downloading this packet, there are two main folders: one containing the lesson plans and description of the activities (in PDF format), and one containing all of the supplemental materials for certain activities (in PDF format). This means that you won’t have to make anything yourself – everything is provided for you.

I am also including a folder with forms that contains an editable permission slip and a parent communication form to let parents know what the student worked on during the session.

I have also made individual sections available for purchase (click on each topic below to get to individual lesson bundles).

The topics covered in my curriculum are as follows:

I. FRIENDSHIP BASICS

Lesson #01: Introduction to Social Skills Group (+3 Activities)

Lesson #02: Behavior Expectations and Rules (+6 Activities)

Lesson #03: Introducing Yourself (+3 Activities)

Lesson #04: Getting to Know Each Other (+6 Activities)

Lesson #05: What Is a Friend? (+4 Activities)

Lesson #06: Filling Buckets (+4 Activities)

Lesson #07: Giving and Receiving Compliments (+3 Activities)

II. CONVERSATION SKILLS

Lesson #08: Listening Body (+6 Activities)

Lesson #09: STEPS (an acronym developed by myself) (+3 Activities)

Lesson #10: S = Space (+5 Activities)

Lesson #11: T = Take Turns (+6 Activities)

Lesson #12: E = Eye Contact (+6 Activities)

Lesson #13: P = Polite (+3 Activities)

Lesson #14: S = Stay on Topic (+6 Activities)

Lesson #15: Volume (+5 Activities)

III. FEELINGS & ANGER MANGEMENT

Lesson #16: Basic Emotions (+8 Activities)

Lesson #17: Complex Emotions (+9 Activities)

Lesson #18: Body Language & Prosody (+5 Activities)

Lesson #19: Dealing With Anger (+10 Activities)

Lesson #20: Relaxation Techniques (+8 Activities)

Lesson #21: Sensory Techniques (+13 Activities)

Lesson #22: Dealing With Change (+7 Activities)

Lesson #23: Self-Control (+5 Activities)

IV. BEING PART OF A GROUP

Lesson #24: Joining a Group (+5 Activities)

Lesson #25: Playing a Game (+7 Activities)

Lesson #26: Dealing With Losing (+6 Activities)

Lesson #27: Sharing (+8 Activities)

Lesson #28: Fairness & Compromising (+9 Activities)

V. PROBLEM-SOLVING & MANAGING CONFLICTS

Lesson #29: Identifying Problem Sizes (+4 Activities)

Lesson #30: Solving Problems (+8 Activities)

Lesson #31: Group Problem-Solving (+5 Activities)

Lesson #32: Bullying (+9 Activities)

Lesson #33: Dealing With Teasing (+7 Activities)

Lesson #34: Tattling (+4 Activities)

Lesson #35: Resolving Conflicts (+9 Activities)

VI. SOCIO-COGNITIVE SKILLS

Lesson #36: Perspective-Taking (+10 Activities) ***ADDED ON 08/16/14***

Lesson #37: Thinking & Talking Bubbles (+5 Activities) ***ADDED ON 09/20/14***

Lesson #38: Social Filter (+6 Activities) ***ADDED ON 11/07/14***

Lesson #39: Empathy (+9 Activities) ***ADDED ON 11/30/14***

Lesson #40: Flexible Thinking (+8 Activities) ***ADDED ON 11/30/14***

These lessons offer a great pre-cursor to higher-level social skill curricula (e.g. Michelle Garcia Winner) and are designed to be a comprehensive first exposure to a social skills group. While I organized these lessons by category, you can of course use them in any order you see fit. You can do these lessons in a social skills group setting, in a whole classroom setting, or during a speech therapy / counseling session as needed.

I also welcome any suggestions for additional activities you would like me to include or other topics that you would like to see covered (Stranger danger & Honesty are two that I thought might be worth adding in the future).

If you like this resource, please leave some feedback. If you feel that there is room for improvements, please let me know so that I can make the necessary changes and post a revised product! I want to make sure that I provide the best quality resource to suits your needs!

Thank you for your support!

If you like this resource, you may also like the following of my products:

Weekly Social Skills Homework

Social Stories Mega Bundle

Social-Skills-Themed Reading Comprehension Passages

***UPDATES***

--08/16/14: Added Lesson #36: Perspective-Taking (+10 Activities)

--08/31/14: Added five decorative cover pages

--09/20/14: Added Lesson #37: Thinking & Talking Bubbles (+5 Activities) and altered all supplements to reflect the supplement number at the bottom of the page (per customer request)

--11/07/14: Added Lesson #38: Social Filter (+ 6 Activities) and fixed a small error in Lesson #30 (added a definition for "solution")

--11/30/14: Added Lessons #39 & #40 (+17 Activities), updated Table of contents & Credits page

--01/19/15: Added an activity to Lesson #6, as well as the accompanying supplement

--08/08/16: Added a Word version of the Progress note for editing