Home › Social Skills - Basic/Intermediate Level
Social Skills - Basic/Intermediate Level
Following Rules and Norms of Social Activities
Basic/Intermediate Level
Shasta Quigley
- Description of Skill - Following rules and norms is the ability to adhere to expectations in a social situation. This may include written rules, memorized rules, or rules that are inferred. Difficulties following rules and adhering to norms can be the result of a lack of understanding, or a lack of motivation to recognize social norms.
- Examples of what the skill looks like -
- Mark plays structured board games such as Candyland and Checkers. He takes turns and follows the simple rules that have been pre-taught and practiced.
- A student in middle school sees a group of kids playing cards. He asks what they are playing. If he doesn’t know how to play, he asks them to explain the rules, and plays accordingly, with some reminders or corrections from his peers.
- A student who enjoys playing “Hide & Seek” is able to play many varieties of the game, depending on who he is playing with and where he is. He asks about specific rules and adjusts his play accordingly.
- Skill Sequence
- Playing novel games after hearing or reading the rules 1-2 times.
- Asking questions about the rules or norms of a novel activity
- Following the model of others during novel activities & taking feedback from peers
- Inferring and adhering to social rules based on past experience
- Joining games and activities
- Taking turns/waiting for turn
- Playing simple turn-takin ggames in a structured (classroom, social group) setting after review and practice
- Playing games in supervised, structured setting that follow a set of explicit and practiced rules
- Following written or verbal rules for an activity that have been learned in advance
Lesson Plan
- Student Outcomes - At the end of this lesson the student(s) will be able to:
- Playing novel games after hearing or reading the rules 1-2 times.
- Asking questions about the rules or norms of a novel activity
- Following the model of others during novel activities & taking feedback from peers
- Inferring and adhering to social rules based on past experience
- Materials - Group games and activities; larger paper and pen (to create rule poster). Video or pre-taught role play of 2 or more people playing a game.
Teaching Format
- Introduce the skill - Watch others playing a game (or a video of others) – Have students make a list of the rules they see others adhering to
- Teach the skill -
- Model -Create a poster with “Rules for Playing Games”; Go over the rules and model what each one looks like. Have students come up and "play" with you. Choose a student who will be a good model; model games with different rules and discuss these differences.
- Role-play for practice -
- Explain the rules to a familiar activity and have 2 students role-play while others watch and give feedback or remind about the rules.
- Have students role-play different activities for the class. Later, do the same in small groups. Ask the class to give them positive feedback about their skills.
- Skill maintenance/Generalization Activities (identify real-life situations to apply the skill) -
- Set up a game group for recess and less structured times to practice the skills. Pull in some students with more advanced skills to be positive models.
- Do a different or new group activity each day-students must ask the teacher about the rules before starting.
- Discuss common social activities (team sports, parties, etc.) and brainstorm what the unwritten “rules” are. Point out which ones are consistent and which ones change depending on the participants.
- Extensions - Have students break into groups and play several versions of a common game. Require them rotate through groups and adjust their play according to the new set of rules.
- Resources -