Social Comprehension

Jolene’s Story

Jolene is a 6th grader who receives services under the emotional disturbance category. Jolene was first identified for special education services in 2nd grade, and she has a history of social deficits and challenging behaviors. Jolene has grade-level academic skills, but her rates of challenging behavior often interfere with learning and impact her social skills.

Parent Perspective

Jolene’s parents are concerned about Jolene’s angry and aggressive behavior, which often leads to confrontations with peers. They worry that Jolene misunderstands others’ behavior. They also worry that Jolene uses slang / informal language too often and in inappropriate settings. They say Jolene sometimes acts like a “mean girl” because she thinks it will make her peers like her.

Mr. Watkins’ Perspective

Mr. Watkins has observed similar behaviors at school. He’s noticed Jolene can be flagrantly disrespectful to teachers and often uses slang / inappropriate language in class. Even when Jolene is complying with adult requests, she does so in a way that is perceived as rude. For example, when her math teacher asked her if she had completed the homework, Jolene replied, “Yeah, whatever.” She often verbalizes slang / informal language to peers when she doesn’t understand or doesn’t want to complete an assignment. Jolene’s teachers are unsure how to respond. Unfortunately, Jolene’s peers often laugh at Jolene’s behavior in class, so Jolene gets attention for her misconduct.

 

 Hear Mr. Watkins share more about Jolene:

Supporting Skills

 

Dealing with Gossip and Peer Pressure

In an effort to make friends, Jolene often engages in gossip. She does not seem to understand that her words can be hurtful to others, and doesn’t care if what she says is untrue. Although gossip is not uncommon among middle schoolers, Jolene tends to take things too far. Additionally, she has trouble distinguishing between false and true statements, and sometimes contributes to gossip by spreading or elaborating on rumors.

Mr. Watkins has noticed that Jolene is sometimes a victim of peer pressure. Because Jolene’s behavior can be outrageous, peers pressure her to do things they think are funny. Sometimes, they encourage Jolene to misbehave or say rude things to teachers. Peers also pressure Jolene into actions that make her uncomfortable, like allowing others to copy her test. Jolene wants her peers to like her, so she typically goes along with whatever peers tell her to do. This often gets Jolene in trouble with teachers.

Managing Conflict

Jolene also has trouble managing conflicts with peers. Peers often tease Jolene about silly or unimportant things. As Jolene perceives all teasing as a direct insult, her common response is to become confrontational with peers. Jolene also has trouble being flexible: sometimes, peers want to play a game that Jolene doesn’t want to play; at other times, Jolene and her peers agree on the game but disagree on the rules. Because Jolene considers disagreements to be personal attacks, her response is to yell at peers and quit activities.

Helping Jolene Build Friendships

Jolene has told Mr. Watkins that she wants to make friends, but she doesn’t feel like anyone likes her. Jolene has repeatedly communicated that even though peers engage with her at school, she’s rarely invited to anything outside of school. Jolene knows that others perceive her behavior as rude and inappropriate, but she doesn’t know alternative ways to respond.

Jolene participated in virtual reality social skills instruction to practice her social comprehension skills. Mr. Watkins worked to help her generalize the skills she learned in real-life settings. Click on the links below to see how Mr. Watkins developed a lesson for each skill.

Jolene’s Lesson Plans

 

Understands Appropriate Ways to Deal with Problems with Others

Understands Appropriate Ways to Deal with Problems with Others

During VOISS sessions, Jolene learned to respond to peer teasing with, "I know you're joking, but I don't like it when you tease me about [topic]. Please stop." If teasing persisted, she also learned to leave the area and join a different group. Mr. Watkins was...

Understands Gossip

Understands Gossip

In VOISS lessons, Jolene learned to identify gossip and respond appropriately. Specifically, she learned to say, “I understand how you feel, but I don’t feel comfortable talking about [person’s name] when they’re not around.” Then, Jolene would change the topic of...

Manages Peer Pressure

Manages Peer Pressure

During VOISS lessons, Jolene learned that peer pressure occurs when others pressure you to act or behave a certain way. She discovered that peer pressure can be positive (e.g., peers encourage you to study or make a good decision), but she shouldn’t let peers pressure...

Uses Slang and Idioms in Appropriate Settings

Uses Slang and Idioms in Appropriate Settings

Through VOISS lessons, Jolene practiced identifying settings in which informal language is appropriate. She learned that it is inappropriate to use slang / informal language in settings involving school employees. She has also learned that even when she is hanging out...

Uses a Respectful Voice

Uses a Respectful Voice

During VOISS lessons, Jolene learned to speak in a respectful tone during class and use appropriate word choice (i.e., avoid using words like “whatever”). Mr. Watkins created a lesson to help Jolene practice the skill of using a respectful voice (Social Comprehension...