Effects of social promotion on students with learning disabilities

¶ … children in the United States suffer from learning disabilities and disabilities that impair their ability to socialize properly with others. Social skill interventions are designed to help students with specific disabilities like autism understand how to learn and adapt while in a social setting like a classroom or school trip. One such project, the HANDS project, developed a way to support students with autism spectrum disorder learn important social and life skills. "The HANDS project has developed a mobile cognitive support application for smartphones, based on the principles of persuasive technology design, which supports children with ASD with social and life skills functioning -- areas of ability which tend to be impaired in this population" (Mintz, Branch, March, & Lerman, 2012, p. 53).

This kind of technology is not only easy to access, but easy to use making it feasible for any parent or teacher looking to help a student. Socialization is an important aspect of learning in school. Teamwork in team projects are common in classrooms throughout the country. If teachers have a device readily available to aid them in assisting their disabled students, they can make the learning experience for those students much easier. The mobile application can also be used at home so parents can have a means of instructing and helping their child when they are not in school.

Ultimately what this article provides is the idea that there are options out there to make teaching children with learning disabilities and social problems easy. After all, convenience is the main determiner for consistency in any learning. Convenience and ease promote consistency.

Social skill interventions can greatly aid a child with learning disabilities improve their socialization abilities and thus their learning abilities. A 2012 article highlights the various social skill interventions that may improve social skills in children with learning disabilities. "Several social skill interventions have been described that may improve social skills in this population, including video modeling, developmental, peer-mediated, behavioral, and structured teaching interventions" (Walton & Ingersoll, 2012, p. 594). Video modeling for example, is a type of observational learning where students learn desired behaviors from watching a video demonstration, followed by imitation of observed behavior. Video modeling offers an easy to understand approach at learning social skills and allowing kids with learning disabilities to connect the dots faster when it comes to socialization and working in group settings.

Another approach, PMI or peer-mediated instruction offers a chance for peers of the target pupils to teach each other so they may learn how to socialize effectively without worrying about relying heavily on teacher involvement. Students can then help each other learn and grow respectively through practice and direct application of theory. Social skill interventions should be an integral aspect of learning for students with disabilities, in particular learning disabilities. By highlighting the ways in which students can learn social skills and providing chances for socialization not only with their teachers, but their peers, this article provides effective and varied way for social promotion.

Students need a variety of approaches when it comes to learning. Giving young students options in socialization allows a better chance to retain the information and properly apply it in the long-term. It also takes the guesswork and responsibility away from the teacher and places it on the students themselves who learn to take action in learning social skills.

Social skill interventions are at times difficult and teachers are often at the center of social promotion. If teachers find it difficult to perform certain tasks, their behaviors will reflect these difficulties. Sometimes these anxieties are caused by perceptions brought on by expectations placed on them by schools and specifically, principles as explained in a 2013 article. "Teacher perception of their school principals' expectations (subjective norm) predicted teacher behaviors. Teachers who had attended more in-service training (INSET) sessions held more positive feelings, but teachers with more experience were less willing to work with children with SEBD" (MacFarlane & Woolfson, 2013, p. 46).