Welcome!
My name is Kim Davis and I hope to provide you with tools, activities and ideas for teaching social skills in a friendly, easy to use way.
I have been a Special Education Teacher/Specialist since 2006. I completed my course work at the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg and Western Oregon University. I have also completed the Autism Specialist Program at Western Oregon University. Most of my work and passion lies in teaching students with High Functioning Autism who are integrated in the general education population. This is often referred to as a resource setting. I have developed and taught a Social Development class at the middle school level that helped kids to become a good friends, students and people by learning about the hidden curriculum of life. The work that these kids did at the middle school level allowed them access to more in high school with fewer social and behavioral struggles.
I believe in dedicated time daily for social skills; instruction, generalization and support. I believe in collaboration between all of the supports in a child’s life. I believe in creative ideas and student first approaches.
School is a social situation and if students don’t have the skills and/or behavior to navigate the structured day, they won’t be able to access the instruction at their full potential. It’s hard to learn math when you have trouble with the person sitting next to you, the idioms that the teacher uses and the flickering of the lights.
While these tools are approached with the student with autism in mind, they are applicable to all students. Please pick and choose and use what fits with your students, in your situation. You’ll find that I draw from all sorts of places and people for their great ideas and put them through the lens of autism. (If they’re not already!) There’s no need to reinvent the wheel as they say, so let’s get started and draw from each others brilliance to help our students. With that said, feel free to share your ideas and tools with me as I create this resource for us all.
Yay!
Kim
Social Skills Teaching Tools 