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Project ACHIEVE identifies four key areas where children need to develop prosocial competencies. Our
program notes the importance of these key areas and teaches prosocial competence through acting and drama.
1. Survival skills (e.g., listening, following directions, ignoring distractions, using nice or brave
talk, rewarding yourself) are social skills that are prerequisite and used, directly or indirectly, by all of the other social
skills in order for them to be performed successfully. Thus, these skills form the foundation for all other skills,
and typically, many of them are taught first as students are growing up.
2. Interpersonal skills (e.g., sharing, asking for permission, joining an activity, waiting your turn)
are social skills that help students to interact appropriately with siblings, peers, older and younger students, parents,
teachers, and other adults such that they get along with each other. In essence, these are the skills that help us to
build and maintain social relationships.
3. Problem-solving skills (e.g., asking for help, apologizing, accepting consequences, deciding what
to do) are social skills that help students to solve individual, interactive, or group (e.g., peer or classroom) problems.
Some of these skills are important as they prevent problems from occurring, while others of these skills are important
because they help students to respond to a problem so that it does not escalate into a conflict.
4. Conflict resolution skills (e.g., dealing with teasing, losing, accusations, being left out, peer
pressure) are social skills that help students to deal with significant emotions and emotional situations, and to resolve
existing intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts. Among the emotions that students experience and need to control
are the following: anger, embarrassment, frustration, fear, anxiety, jealousy, sadness, impatience, and helplessness.
Overview of the Stop & Think Social Skills Process: Part of Creating a Building-based Social Skills, Positive Behavioral
Support, and School Safety System. Howard M Knoff, PhD, Director, Project ACHIEVE, Little Rock, AR.
Sample Lesson:
Understanding How Other People Feel
The actor (student) will be given a situation to act out in mime. The situation will be used to convey a certain
emotion or feeling (some examples are happiness, sadness, disappointment, jealousy, confusion).
The actors will have already been instructed in mime techniques from previous lessons.
The audience (director and/or other actors (students)) will have to guess the emotion or feeling.
Engages the ability to recognize and convey a feeling or emotion.
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