Welcome to s2s Insights! Welcome to the Steps to Socialization newsletter s2s Insights. Each month 'Social Thoughts' contains a theme article on a relevant social topic. Informative articles or books related to the theme can be found in 'News and Reviews'. The 'Tips and Tools' section contains social thinking tips and activities. 'In the Neighborhood' covers related events and programs.
Children get teased all the time. Help your child understand the difference between friendly teasing and mean teasing.
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Social Thoughts
Children with social learning challenges often have difficulty distinguishing between friendly teasing and mean teasing. Close friends joke around affectionately by teasing each other. You can help your child figure out what they are experiencing. They need to ask themselves these questions to figure out if its friendly teasing or mean teasing. If the answers to the following questions are 'yes', then it's probably mean teasing.
Has this person done anything negative toward you previously? Are you having a problem with this person at the moment? Just before the teasing occurred did the person seem annoyed, angry or mean? Were there any other people around when this happened? Was the person trying to impress these people? Did you notice any non-verbal cues such as a smirk or nasty tone of voice?
If it's friendly teasing you will answer 'no' to the above questions and 'yes' to the ones below. Has the person been friendly toward you in the past? Did you notice any non-verbal cues such as a smile or giggle? Does the person's tone of voice sound friendly? Did the person stop when you asked them to stop teasing? Friendly teasing is often sarcastic. Sarcasm is when someone says the opposite of what you expect them to say. When someone is being sarcastic they know it - that's what makes what they're saying funny. You don't have to correct them or tell them that they're wrong, they know it
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Tips and Tools
Concept of the Month: What's in a smile?
There are different kinds of smiles. Each smile means something different. There's a friendly smile, 
a shy smile, a smirk,  a sad smile,
an anxious smile. 
Interpreting what kind of smile it is, is not just about the mouth. It's about the entire face but especially the eyes, eyebrows and nose. If you cover up the eyes the smiles don't appear to be very different. You need to look at the upper part of the face to figure out what that person is thinking.
Activity # 1:
Have the student look at various pictures. Cover the upper part of the face and notice how similar the expressions are. Now cover the lower part and notice the differences. Now look at the whole face and try to figure out what that person is thinking
Activity # 2:
Watch TV shows and movies with your children. Ask them to figure out if the characters are teasing each other and what kind of teasing it is and if they are being sarcastic and what their intent is.
Shows to check out:
Younger children: Sponge Bob, Ant Farm
Older children: I Carly, Victorius, Hannah Montana, Zach and Cody ________________________________ |
See you next month! In the meantime, please visit us on the web and read our blog.
Evelyn
and Lisa |
