Social SKILLS

Introduction The better your social skills, the more likely you are to be successful with your friends and feel better about yourself. Turn to a partner and together come up with a social situation in which you felt shy or uncomfortable. The reason for this feeling is a lack of social self- confidence. A fear of what to say or do.

Overcoming Shyness Start with easy situations Learn to Act Develop Scripts Practice Be Persistent Turn to page

Points To Make Many people are shy and uncomfortable in social situations Shyness can be overcome by learning to “act” as if you weren’t shy and by improving your social skills. Anxiety about social contacts can be helped by utilizing the techniques learned in the Coping with Anxiety session.

Initiating Social Contacts It is an important step in overcoming shyness involves initiating social contacts. This skill gives us the ability to meet new people and make new friends. Most people feel shy in new situations Turn to page 47 and let’s review the tips for initiating contacts

Starting a conversation Turn to page 49 in student guide Let’s review the tips for starting, keeping and ending a conversation.

The Value of Open-Ended Questions An important part of maintaining a conversation is asking open-ended questions. Open ended questions cannot be answered with a simple “yes” or “no”. Rather they are phrased so that the person will give you more information. Examples How do your feel about….? What do you think about>>>? Can you tell me more about…..? Closed-ended Examples Did you see the game? Do you like school? What time does class start?

Turn to page 50, Complete Worksheet 13, Asking the right Kinds of questions.

Practicing Social Skills Using Scenarios in Appendix 1, page 7.13 I need a couple volunteers to demonstrate some of the situations Now, you will be working in pairs Each group will get a situation Practice the situation