Darlene Mannix - Social Skills Activities for Secondary Students with Special Needs

Darlene Mannix

Copyright 2022 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Mannix, Darlene, author.

Title: Social skills activities for secondary students with special needs / Darlene Mannix.

Description: Third Edition. | San Francisco : Jossey-Bass, [2022] | Series: Jossey-Bass Teacher | Originally published: West Nyack, N.Y. : Center for Applied Research in Education, c1998.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021051558 (print) | LCCN 2021051559 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119827429 (Paperback) | ISBN 9781119827481 (Adobe PDF) | ISBN 9781119827474 (ePub)

Subjects: LCSH: Developmentally disabled childrenUnited StatesLife skills guides. | Developmentally disabled childrenEducation (Secondary)United States. | Life skillsStudy and teaching (Secondary)United States. | Social skillsStudy and teaching (Secondary)United States.

Classification: LCC HV894 .M365 2022 (print) | LCC HV894 (ebook) | DDC 305.9/085083dc23/eng/20211209

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021051558

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021051559

Cover Design: Wiley

Cover Images: mhatzapa/Shutterstock, Ola_view/Shutterstock, Polina Tomtosova, AnastasiaNi/Shutterstock

Social Skills Activities For Secondary Students with Special Needs, Third Edition, is a collection of lessons and activities designed to help secondary students with exceptionalities learn to improve their relationships with others.

The material in this book is designed to appeal to special needs students in several ways. The skills are presented in small, sequential steps. The topics are very specific and relevant. The lessons are designed for intentional, rather than incidental, learning. And although the topics covered are serious and important, humor and fun are always included whenever possible.

Darlene Mannix has worked as an educator for more than thirty years and has taught a wide range of children, including students with learning disabilities, emotional disturbance, language disorders, reading disorders, and multiple disabilities. Mannix received her bachelor of science degree from Taylor University and her master's degree in learning disabilities from Indiana University. A past presenter at numerous educational conferences, including the Council for Exceptional Children, she is the author of many books, including the third edition of Life Skills Activities for Secondary Students with Special Needs (Jossey-Bass, 2021), Life Skills Activities for Special Children (Jossey-Bass, 2009), Social Skills Activities for Special Children (Jossey-Bass, 2008), and Writing Skills Activities for Special Children (Jossey-Bass, 2004). She has most recently worked as a Title 1 Reading Teacher.

This book is dedicated to Kara Mannix

Such fun!

Social Skills Activities for Secondary Students with Special Needs, Third Edition, was designed primarily for teachers working in a classroom setting, although parents, counselors, and anyone else working or living with secondary schoolage children or teens in need of social skills training will also find it useful.

Social skills training is somewhat unique in that special needs students often require precise, intentional instruction for situations that are navigated easily and naturally by most students. Many special needs students have a hard time recognizing social cues from their environment, and they do not understand how to respond appropriately to people or events. Making and keeping friends is another area that is particularly challenging for special needs students.

The focus of this book is to present specific social skills for examination, training, and practice. The skills covered are based on the tasks and situations most commonly found in a secondary student's environment.

This book is organized into three main parts:

• , Personality Traits: What Are You Like?, seeks to help students answer questions about their basic personality traits. Using common examples, situations, and questions, students are guided into rating themselves on numerous traits using a spectrum with two views of one behavior at each end. Are they introverted? Are they extroverted? Group enthusiasts? Prefer to work alone? There are no right or wrong answers here; this is simply a way to help the students think about their personality traits. These traits will affect the students' successful navigation into social situations.
• , Learning Basic Social Skills, delves right into specific skills that are helpful and necessary for an individual to acquire in order to be socially successful. This part of the book covers skills that relate to making a good impression (for instance, displaying acceptable behavior, listening, and communicating), skills for self-improvement (viewing situations realistically, controlling emotions, using a sense of humor appropriately, and so on), and skills for being around others (for example, respecting authority, being flexible, and negotiating).