Social Skills and Language Arts

Sahara has a talent of writing and she hopes that one day she can become a writer. However, Sahara decides to not demonstrate her writing skills at school. She stopped writing anything at school, including her homework. The school feels that because of her lack of motivation and inability to complete her work that Sahara needs special education. Her mother feels that Sahara does not need to be in special education. Sahara is then sent back to the regular classroom where she continues to not complete her work because she does not see the point in working hard. She feels that if she does do her work it will just end up back in the counselor's office with the rest of the letters that she had written to her father where taken. Sahara is also having difficulties with her social life and home life. She often does not understand social cues from her peers. I think that instead of Sahara talking to others about her problems she keeps them inside which makes her quieter and keeps more to herself. I think that Sahara is lonely and longs to make friends but does not quiet have the social skills necessary. I also think that kids who do not complete their work and are often in trouble are less popular and have a harder time making friends with others. Even though Sahara has a talent for writing she does not feel worthy enough to share her abilities with others.

I think that in many situations students that are dealing with a disability or delay in reading or writing often have troubles with their social skills. Many students feel they are not as smart or capable as students that are not struggling like themselves. These students might act out to get attention or withdraw and go unnoticed.

I have been in many situations where I have seen kids that were struggling academically. In a lot of the situations I could tell that the students who did not complete their work or participate in the class often had socially issues and did not have have alot of friends in the class. But I also know personal friends of mine that have a learning disability and have a lot of friends and do well in school, but they just have to study a lot.

As a teacher I think that it is very important to have a variety of activities that require all the students to work in different groups. I feel that this will give the children an opportunity to work with each of their peers and get to know them better.