Promoting Social Success : A Curriculum for Children with Special Needs

Promoting Social Success is a research-based and field-tested curriculum designed to improve the social skills of students with learning and behavioral problems. This flexible and easy-to-use curriculum is designed to teach all children, with particular emphasis on children with special needs, the social skills they need to be successful. The curriculum is designed for both self-contained and inclusive classrooms for grades 2 to 5.Rather than teaching a set of prescribed behaviors, the curriculum focuses on strengthening the cognitive processes behind behaviors. The program is organized into five units, which each focus on a particular skill set appropriate for social interaction. The 66 lessons cover skills such as understanding others' emotions, recognizing other people's intentions, generating strategies for social situations, sharing, and forgiveness. The curriculum also contains a teacher's guide, student handouts, drawings of social situations, and photographs illustrating feelings to help teachers present the lessons. An appendix contains parent newslett

Emily Paige Rickards is Program Officer for the Oliver Wendell Holmes Society, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.