Social Skills & Interactions for Children with Special Needs

I’m a special education teacher and a few of my 5th grade students are getting nervous about moving to the Middle School in the fall.  We always visit the new school towards the end of the year, but I don’t think it’s enough to calm their anxiety.  Any ideas to help make the transition smoother?

My son will not sit when we go out to a restaurant. He continually tries to crawl under the table or run away from the table. What can we do to make going out to eat easier?

My older middle school Life Skills students need some community-based work experiences, but our school is located in a rural area without many opportunities nearby.  What can I do to help them learn some beneficial work skills?

My students often imitate and I want to avoid reinforcing “wrong” or poor skills and behaviors. How can I teach and reinforce positive skills and behaviors?

I have a student in my elementary school classroom who sometimes hits when he is on the playground. We are currently working on a Positive Behavior Support Plan. He has been suspended for this behavior before and I’m hoping we can come up with another alternative when the behavior does occur. I don’t think he should be suspended! What consequence might be appropriate and satisfy the team?

My son has autism and recently has be removed from his father’s house to go live with his grandmother. He may experience another change soon as I am hoping to get full custody of him.   In this case, he will move in with me. I realize this amount of change is difficult, and I would like some ideas to make his next move (hopefully with me) less stressful.   In addition, the move in with me would require a trip in a plane. How can I best prepare him for upcoming changes?

How can I stop one of my students from pushing to get in front of the line and running into students every day when the bell rings? When we hold him for safety he kicks and yells.

As a parent I would like to know some ideas or tips to help boost my children’s self esteem. It seems that they both struggle with not having much self confidence in what they are doing, mostly in school. They are very bright but doubt themselves in most things they do. Does anyone have any helpful ideas or tips that I can try? Thanks!

I work with students who are teenagers in a public school. Some of them have severe disabilities. These students enjoy games designed for younger children such as a See and Say. I’m trying to get my students paired with teens in regular education – if these toys make them happy can’t I use them for social interaction? What other age appropriate items could I use?