|
SCS will teach thirty minutes of character education daily using Second Step© , a universal prevention program designed to promote social competence and reduce aggression. Findings consistently support that students engaged in the Second Step curriculum:
• become less physically aggressive and increase their positive social interactions
• show significant declines in anxious, depressed, and socially withdrawn behavior
• increase conceptual knowledge of social skills
• decrease verbal and physical aggression
• improve social competence
• require less adult intervention
• display less hostility
• are more likely to choose goals that lead to fair outcomes for themselves and others
• endorse social exclusion less often
• show increases in following directions and following classroom rules
The program is designed to develop skills that are central to children’s healthy social and emotional development: (a) empathy, (b) impulse control and problem solving, and (c) anger management.
• Empathy provides a foundation on which problem-solving and emotion-management skills are then built. The empathy program focuses on labeling one’s own emotions and accurately identifying the emotions of others. The lessons teach children to identify the nonverbal (especially facial expressions), verbal, and situational cues related to six common emotions: happy, sad, angry, surprised, afraid, and disgusted.
• The impulse control and problem-solving lessons build on empathy skills. Children are taught that when they are having a problem with peers, it is useful first to calm down and then to apply a set of problem-solving steps. Problem-solving lessons provide children with a specific set of steps that lead them to think about social situations in ways that promote prosocial responses to peers.
In guided discussions and role-plays, children identify problems, then brainstorm, evaluate, and implement solutions, assess whether or not the solutions have been effective, and try alternate positive strategies if necessary. The students then also practice carrying out these positive strategies. Children practice these skills in the context of a variety of different situations. For example, they rehearse what to do when joining an activity, dealing with gossip, or encountering peer pressure.
• The emotion/anger management unit introduces calming down strategies. Children learn to recognize anger triggers and physical signs that they are angry. They use these signs as cues that it is time to use the anger management strategies they have learned. They learn to then prevent escalation of angry feelings by using strategies to relax, like counting, taking deep breaths, and making helpful self-statements (for example, “I can calm down”). Lessons involve events that are typically stress-inducing for many children, such as being left out, dealing with criticism, and keeping out of fights.
For more information see:
The Committee for Children
http://www.cfchildren.org/programs/ssp/overview
|
