How to Use 52 Essential Social Skills Deck Series

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Using 52 Essential Social Skills and Social Situations, by Adeena (Speech Language Pathologist): Read Transcript

  • Use as an ice breaker to kickstart speech sessions.
  • Use for dynamic assessments with K-5 students to understand their level of conversational skills and social skills.
  • Relatable school-life questions to get kids ready for the expectations and realities of school.
  • Use in the car with twins to see how answers differ.

 

Using 52 Essential Social Skills, by Annette (Parent): Read Transcript

  • Use at home with siblings at the dinner table.
  • Conversation cards to bridge sibling age gap (and competitiveness!)
  • Help kids transition into a new school.

 

Using 52 Essential Decks, by Jennifer (Parent, Author, SEL Expert): Read Transcript

  • Use at home to give families a fun way to build and rehearse important social skills.
  • Calming nerves when transitioning into a new school, building friendships, handling peer pressures and awkward situations.
  • Use in the classrooms for morning meeting, advisory, closing circle.
  • Use to create a safe, caring classroom community and school environment.

 

 Using 52 Essential Social Situations, by Sapna (Parent): Read Transcript

  • Use at home with child to work on intrapersonal and interpersonal skills.
  • Help kids develop skills in empathy and relationship building.
  • Build confidence within children, and build respect of diversity and inclusion.
  • Understand where my kids need improvement and areas of strengths.

 

Using 52 Essential Dilemmas, by Natalie (School Counselor 23 years and counting!): Read Transcript 

  • Use to have meaningful conversations and connection with students.
  • Age appropriate and real-life scenarios to prevent students from struggling in middle school.
  • Use in small groups, 1 to 1 sessions, lunch brunches, circles and connection activities, and engage the classroom in connection before content.
  • The progression of card difficulty levels help educators quickly find topics suitable for every student.
  • Cards align with Leader in Me (Taking Initiative), SEL curriculum, and Restorative Practices (Making Amends).

 

Using 52 Essential Social Situations, by Autumn (Mom of Two Boys): Read Transcript

  • Modern and realistic social situations that kids and parents actually relate to.
  • Use for first week of school to break the ice for what's to come now that they're back in school.
  • Use at family dinner taking turns picking out a card.
  • Use with your kids' friends when they come over.
  • Great way to engage boys in school life conversations--in ways they who would otherwise not haven't shared.
  • Use as teacher's gift to help support classroom management and relationship-building.

 

Using 52 Essential Dilemmas, by Shirin (Educational Therapist, ERMHS): Read Transcript 

  • Practical, realistic, and fun way to practice situations related to building Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, and Relationship Skills.
  • Useful tool to show me where my students might be lacking some skills and where they might need some additional support. Understand where the breakdown happens.
  • Each card scenario help to pinpoint specific development needs, such as identify and label emotions, utilize distress tolerance skills, and effective communication skills.

   

Using 52 Essential Dilemmas, by Dave (Parent): Read Transcript 

  • Use on the go for roadtrips to get the dialogues started.
  • Use to keep the connections alive with rising teenagers.
  • Have thought-provoking discussions than just surface level comments.
  • Put into context emotional intelligence concepts using real-world social dilemmas that kids experience.
  • Discover with my kids together the specific types of social situations they tend to struggle in or not know the answers to.
  • Debate the stance they might take and then switch sides to practice perspective-taking.
  • Great evidence-based tool to lean on, so we don't have to struggle to come up with things on our own. 
  • Tie in with the other 52 Essential card decks.

     

    Using 52 Essential Dilemmas, by Neko (7th Grade Student): Read Transcript 

    • Useful for helping me dealing with disappointments and bullying at school.
    • Use these fun cards with friends at lunch time in school and in between periods, since we all deal with a lot of the situations in the cards.
    • Use by pulling out one of the cards and discussing the topic, seeing how it affects our lives.
    • Use these cards after social situations to learn from mistakes and see how to make new friends.

     

    Using 52 Essential Dilemmas, by Rachel (Licensed Clinical Social Worker): Read Transcript 

    • Help Middler Schoolers understand their values and priorities.
    • Align with the evidence-based student interventions, for example: worst case scenario game, role-playing, solution-focused responses, emotional regulation.
    • Reduce anxieties, build autonomy, independence, problem solving skills, navigate healthy relationships, seeking help, and setting boundaries.
    • Help students feel more comfortable and in control when confronting difficult situations. Learning to stay positive and practice responses ahead of time.

     

    Using 52 Essential Dilemmas, by Chris (School Counselor, Professor): Read Transcript 

    • Versatile card deck format allows educators to connect with at-promise students in an easy and non-threatening way.
    • Ways to use: playing a game, one on one, conflict resolution and mediation with multiple students, group settings, icebreaker for different events.
    • The card scenarios help to generate conversations and perspective that might not have been there originally.
    • Favorite card topics with real life scenarios to help students build skills: Coping with Exclusions, Overcoming the Imposter Syndrome, Cheering Others On, Experiencing Gratitude.
    • Use this with different age groups: from grade-school students to my graduate-level students.
    • Use with own kids to generate fun conversations based on what happens at school, and see how they respond.