Parent Report Card
A fun way to reflect on your parenting skills
Safety Tips for Kids
 
·I know my full name, my parent's names, and our address and phone number.
·I know when and how to use 911 and 0. I know I can dial 911 and 0 from a pay phone without any money.
· I never put my name on my clothes, jewelry, caps or belongings where people can see it.
·I tell my parents about things that happen to me that make me feel scared, uncomfortable or sad.
·I know the difference between a good secret and a bad secret. A good secret is fun to keep, like a surprise party. A bad secret feels bad to keep, and telling my parents about it doesn’t make me a “tattle tale.”
·Strangers: I know that a stranger is anyone I don’t know well. Even people I recognize - like the mailman or ice cream truck driver - are strangers, and that someone can be a stranger even if they look nice or know my name.
 ·I never tell strangers my name or where I live.
·I should say "No" to helping a stranger.
· Buddy System: I use the “buddy system”and avoid walking or playing alone outside and in public places.
·Walking: When I walk down the street, I always face traffic so that I can see if someone stops their car near me. I never take short cuts through deserted areas like creeks or vacant lots.
·Yell NO, Run and Tell: I know that yelling and running are better safety ideas than trying to hide. If a stranger approaches me, I will YELL “No,”RUN to where there are safe adults, and TELL an adult.
·Safe Distance: I know to stay a safe distance (approximately three arm-lengths) away from strangers and stranger’s cars, even if a stranger seems nice. I know to run in the direction opposite from the direction the stranger’s car is traveling.
·Fight Back: It is okay to yell and fight; anything to get the stranger to let go. Yelling is the most important thing I can do, and to yell, “No!”“Help!”or “Fire!”to get an adult’s attention.
·Home Safety: I keep all the doors and windows locked when I am home alone, and to go to a neighbor and call 911 if a window is broken or if the door is open when I get home. I know how to call my parents or a neighbor if I get frightened when I’m home alone.
·Doorbell Safety: It is an adults job to open the door, not mine
·Phone Safety:It is an adults job to answer the phone or let the answering machine pick it up.
· Internet Safety: I know never to give my last name, address, or phone number to a person on the Internet, and that it is never safe to meet Internet friends in person without my parent’s supervision and consent.
·I know to ask permission first before going into a neighbor's house.
LINKS
Fun Ways to learn how to get along!
 

Here are some activities that may help kids learn specific social skills, from staying in line to negotiating a compromise with peers. In addition, these activities may give kids the opportunity to practice perspective-taking, mind-reading, and emotional self-control.

Games for the very young

The name game

Researchers Sandra Sandy and Kathleen Cochran note that young children need to learn the importance of getting someone’s attention before you speak. They’ve invented this little game for teaching social skills: Have kids sit in a circle and give one kid a ball. Then ask him to name another child in the circle and roll the ball to that child. The recipient then takes his turn—naming a child and rolling the ball--and so on.

Follow the leader

Have kids line up behind a leader and follow him through an obstacle course. Kids must stay in line, and take turns as they pass through each section of the course.

Social skills activities that teach kids how to read facial expressions

People who are good at interpreting facial expressions can better anticipate what others will do. They are also more “prosocial,” or helpful towards others. Can we help kids hone their face-reading skills?

Make the statue laugh

Here’s a classic game that encourages kids to practice self-control. Kids freeze like statues, then one child--who is “it”--must try to get them to break character and laugh. The first one to laugh becomes “it” for the next round.

Cooperative construction projects

School- or community gardens

Cooperative ball games

How long can a two (or more) kids keep a ball “in play?” There are many variants of this game. You can kick the ball, toss the ball, or hit the ball back and forth (as in volleyball). But the basic idea is the same: Players move the ball back and forth without dropping it or interrupting the rally. Success depends on anticipating and accommodating each other’s actions.

Charades

In a game of charades, kids engage in a variety of social skills activities. A player draws a slip of paper from a container and silently reads the word written there. Then he tries to convey this word to his team mates through pantomime. What gestures are most likely to communicate the crucial information? The best players are good at perspective-taking--at imagining what it’s like being in the audience. They are also good at reading body language and other social cues. After each round, encourage kids to engage in analysis. What gestures worked? What didn’t? Why?

Build a consensus: Social skills activities that teach kids to negotiate

Here are some social skills activities borrowed from industrial/organizational psychology. The idea is to present a group with a set of choices about a fictitious birthday party. Kids must come to an agreement about what to eat for lunch, what activity to engage in, and what sort of birthday cake to have.

Before you play, make cards--one set for each participant.

Each set should be identical, and it should include:

• Cards depicting several different choices of lunch food, including some quirky options (e.g., cards for “pizza,” “peanut butter and jelly,” “noodle soup,” “fish pancakes”).

• Cards depicting several choices of activity (e.g., “roller skating,”  

Here are some activities that may help kids learn specific social skills, from staying in line to negotiating a compromise with peers. In addition, these activities may give kids the opportunity to practice perspective-taking, mind-reading, and emotional self-control.

Games for the very young

The name game

Researchers Sandra Sandy and Kathleen Cochran note that young children need to learn the importance of getting someone’s attention before you speak. They’ve invented this little game for teaching social skills: Have kids sit in a circle and give one kid a ball. Then ask him to name another child in the circle and roll the ball to that child. The recipient then takes his turn—naming a child and rolling the ball--and so on.

Follow the leader

Have kids line up behind a leader and follow him through an obstacle course. Kids must stay in line, and take turns as they pass through each section of the course.

Social skills activities that teach kids how to read facial expressions

People who are good at interpreting facial expressions can better anticipate what others will do. They are also more “prosocial,” or helpful towards others. Can we help kids hone their face-reading skills? Check out these social skills activities for teaching kids about faces.

Make the statue laugh

Here’s a classic game that encourages kids to practice self-control. Kids freeze like statues, then one child--who is “it”--must try to get them to break character and laugh. The first one to laugh becomes “it” for the next round.

Cooperative construction projects

School- or community gardens

Cooperative ball games

How long can a two (or more) kids keep a ball “in play?” There are many variants of this game. You can kick the ball, toss the ball, or hit the ball back and forth (as in volleyball). But the basic idea is the same: Players move the ball back and forth without dropping it or interrupting the rally. Success depends on anticipating and accommodating each other’s actions.

Charades

In a game of charades, kids engage in a variety of social skills activities. A player draws a slip of paper from a container and silently reads the word written there. Then he tries to convey this word to his team mates through pantomime. What gestures are most likely to communicate the crucial information? The best players are good at perspective-taking--at imagining what it’s like being in the audience. They are also good at reading body language and other social cues. After each round, encourage kids to engage in analysis. What gestures worked? What didn’t? Why?

Build a consensus: Social skills activities that teach kids to negotiate

Here are some social skills activities borrowed from industrial/organizational psychology. The idea is to present a group with a set of choices about a fictitious birthday party. Kids must come to an agreement about what to eat for lunch, what activity to engage in, and what sort of birthday cake to have.

Before you play, make cards--one set for each participant.

Each set should be identical, and it should include:

• Cards depicting several different choices of lunch food, including some quirky options (e.g., cards for “pizza,” “peanut butter and jelly,” “noodle soup,” “fish pancakes”).

• Cards depicting several choices of activity (e.g., “roller skating,” “visiting a science museum,” “going to the beach,” “mountain climbing”)

• Cards depicting several different kinds of birthday cake (e.g., “chocolate cake with vanilla frosting,” “yellow cake with chocolate frosting,” “white cake with vanilla frosting,” “carrot cake with cream cheese frosting).

To play, each kid looks over the cards and identifies his favorite and least favorite options. Then kids can try to see what they agree on. Can they negotiate an agreement? Help kids understand the nature of compromise: They might not be able to agree on their favorites. But maybe they can arrive at an acceptable plan by eliminating options that people really dislike.

Team sports and good sportsmanship

Team sports can make very effective social skills activities…if you explicitly teach kids how to be good sports. How? Before a game, remind kids on the goals of good sportsmanship. These include:

• Being a good winner (not bragging and taunting the losers; providing supportive feedback to the losers)

• Being a good loser (congratulating the winner; not blaming others for the loss)

• Showing respect to other players and to the referee

• Showing encouragement and offering help to other players who may be less skilled

• Resolving conflicts without running to the teacher

During a game, give kids the chance to put these principles into action before you intervene in conflicts. If they don’t sort things out themselves after two minutes, you can jump in. And when the game is over, give kids feedback on their good sportsmanship.

Does this approach work? It might. In an experimental study of urban American elementary school students, some kids got the treatment described above. Kids were briefed on good sportsmanship at the beginning of every gym class. And, after every game, teachers gave each team a score reflecting its overall good sportsmanship.

The results? Compared to kids attending regular gym classes, the kids who received explicit training in good sportsmanship showed greater leadership and conflict-resolution skills. And the lessons appeared to have spilled over into regular life, because the kids also showed similar improvements in the classroom (Sharpe et al 1995).

Practicing social scripts: Role-playing social skills activities

When you go to a restaurant, you have certain expectations about what will happen.

• You will approach the cashier, be seated, and given a menu.

• You will read the menu and, when your server arrives, you will make an order.

• After an interval, you will be given your food.

• After you’ve eaten, you will be given a bill.

• You will pay the bill and leave a tip

Cognitive psychologists call this sort of thing a social script. There are many different kinds of social scripts—including scripts for meeting people, shopping for groceries, sharing a meal, being a guest, being a host, receiving gifts (or compliments), interviewing for a job, attending a funeral, and offering sympathy. Social scripts give us a framework for understanding how to behave in various common situations. Becoming an adult, is, in a part, a question of learning your culture’s scripts.

Teaching social scripts is a standard approach for autistic people (Weiss and Harris 2001). Kids learn what to do—even what to say—in common social situations. Normally-developing children might not be autistic, but they can benefit from social skills ac 

Here are some activities that may help kids learn specific social skills, from staying in line to negotiating a compromise with peers. In addition, these activities may give kids the opportunity to practice perspective-taking, mind-reading, and emotional self-control.

Games for the very young

The name game

Researchers Sandra Sandy and Kathleen Cochran note that young children need to learn the importance of getting someone’s attention before you speak. They’ve invented this little game for teaching social skills: Have kids sit in a circle and give one kid a ball. Then ask him to name another child in the circle and roll the ball to that child. The recipient then takes his turn—naming a child and rolling the ball--and so on.

Follow the leader

Have kids line up behind a leader and follow him through an obstacle course. Kids must stay in line, and take turns as they pass through each section of the course.

Social skills activities that teach kids how to read facial expressions

People who are good at interpreting facial expressions can better anticipate what others will do. They are also more “prosocial,” or helpful towards others. Can we help kids hone their face-reading skills? Check out these social skills activities for teaching kids about faces.

Make the statue laugh

Here’s a classic game that encourages kids to practice self-control. Kids freeze like statues, then one child--who is “it”--must try to get them to break character and laugh. The first one to laugh becomes “it” for the next round.

Cooperative construction projects

School- or community gardens

Cooperative ball games

How long can a two (or more) kids keep a ball “in play?” There are many variants of this game. You can kick the ball, toss the ball, or hit the ball back and forth (as in volleyball). But the basic idea is the same: Players move the ball back and forth without dropping it or interrupting the rally. Success depends on anticipating and accommodating each other’s actions.

Charades

In a game of charades, kids engage in a variety of social skills activities. A player draws a slip of paper from a container and silently reads the word written there. Then he tries to convey this word to his team mates through pantomime. What gestures are most likely to communicate the crucial information? The best players are good at perspective-taking--at imagining what it’s like being in the audience. They are also good at reading body language and other social cues. After each round, encourage kids to engage in analysis. What gestures worked? What didn’t? Why?

Build a consensus: Social skills activities that teach kids to negotiate

Here are some social skills activities borrowed from industrial/organizational psychology. The idea is to present a group with a set of choices about a fictitious birthday party. Kids must come to an agreement about what to eat for lunch, what activity to engage in, and what sort of birthday cake to have.

Before you play, make cards--one set for each participant.

Each set should be identical, and it should include:

• Cards depicting several different choices of lunch food, including some quirky options (e.g., cards for “pizza,” “peanut butter and jelly,” “noodle soup,” “fish pancakes”).

• Cards depicting several choices of activity (e.g., “roller skating,” “visiting a science museum,” “going to the beach,” “mountain climbing”)

• Cards depicting several different kinds of birthday cake (e.g., “chocolate cake with vanilla frosting,” “yellow cake with chocolate frosting,” “white cake with vanilla frosting,” “carrot cake with cream cheese frosting).

To play, each kid looks over the cards and identifies his favorite and least favorite options. Then kids can try to see what they agree on. Can they negotiate an agreement? Help kids understand the nature of compromise: They might not be able to agree on their favorites. But maybe they can arrive at an acceptable plan by eliminating options that people really dislike.

Team sports and good sportsmanship

Team sports can make very effective social skills activities…if you explicitly teach kids how to be good sports. How? Before a game, remind kids on the goals of good sportsmanship. These include:

• Being a good winner (not bragging and taunting the losers; providing supportive feedback to the losers)

• Being a good loser (congratulating the winner; not blaming others for the loss)

• Showing respect to other players and to the referee

• Showing encouragement and offering help to other players who may be less skilled

• Resolving conflicts without running to the teacher

During a game, give kids the chance to put these principles into action before you intervene in conflicts. If they don’t sort things out themselves after two minutes, you can jump in. And when the game is over, give kids feedback on their good sportsmanship.

Does this approach work? It might. In an experimental study of urban American elementary school students, some kids got the treatment described above. Kids were briefed on good sportsmanship at the beginning of every gym class. And, after every game, teachers gave each team a score reflecting its overall good sportsmanship.

The results? Compared to kids attending regular gym classes, the kids who received explicit training in good sportsmanship showed greater leadership and conflict-resolution skills. And the lessons appeared to have spilled over into regular life, because the kids also showed similar improvements in the classroom (Sharpe et al 1995).

Practicing social scripts: Role-playing social skills activities

When you go to a restaurant, you have certain expectations about what will happen.

• You will approach the cashier, be seated, and given a menu.

• You will read the menu and, when your server arrives, you will make an order.

• After an interval, you will be given your food.

• After you’ve eaten, you will be given a bill.

• You will pay the bill and leave a tip

Cognitive psychologists call this sort of thing a social script. There are many different kinds of social scripts—including scripts for meeting people, shopping for groceries, sharing a meal, being a guest, being a host, receiving gifts (or compliments), interviewing for a job, attending a funeral, and offering sympathy. Social scripts give us a framework for understanding how to behave in various common situations. Becoming an adult, is, in a part, a question of learning your culture’s scripts.

Teaching social scripts is a standard approach for autistic people (Weiss and Harris 2001). Kids learn what to do—even what to say—in common social situations. Normally-developing children might not be autistic, but they can benefit from social skills activities and role-playing games that encourage them to practice social scripts.

 

tivities and role-playing games that encourage them to practice social scripts.

 

“visiting a science museum,” “going to the beach,” “mountain climbing”)

• Cards depicting several different kinds of birthday cake (e.g., “chocolate