Emily's Blog

Chances are, if a person has a disability in her reading comprehension skills, she may also have trouble comprehending basic social cues or registering a conversion quick enough in her mind. If a person has trouble simply reading or writing, it's normally no secret to the rest of her peers. In the younger grades, one's peers will take advantage of knowing anything about their peers that makes them less "normal" as everyone else; this knowledge seems to typically be used as a tool for teasing the less "normal" students, usually to the detriment of their social life. When a student feels weird, or dumb, or at the pit of all the jokes, her social skills may suffer if she chooses to alienate herself from the majority of her class to get away from teasing or feeling less apt. Having a problem reading or writing at the level of students' peers can affect their social skills when they aren't given opportunities to develop them with others their age.

In the 1st grade class that I am assisting in right now there is a child named Andrew who has autism. Autism as a disability has an affect on Andrew's ability to pick up social cues, but the fact that all of his classmates know he is somewhat "slower" than everyone else, and that he requires extra attention does not help him to have much of a social life. Furthermore, during center time he usually needs to sit by himself at a desk so that he can focus on his work since he is known to easily become distracted; this alienates him from the social interactions that Vigotsky theorizes are vital for one's learning development.
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As a teacher, I can make sure to include activities during class time that encourage social interaction with everyone in the class. I can make sure call on every student during lessons, as well. To build a positive environment, I can do activities like the one that my 1st grade mentor teacher does every Friday afternoon with her students. She has them gather in a circle on the floor and each take turns either "getting" or "giving" a compliment. They are asked to choose when it is their turn, and if they choose to "get" one, then the person who is "it" gets to choose a person holding their hand up to give them a compliment. In Mrs. Renigar's class, they are all very eager to compliment each other, even the less social students like Andrew, and the bully of the class, Sam. Anything that encourages students to interact with one another in a positive manner is great for teaching good social skills.