📈 Boosting Social Skills 🤝
Its the first word in the acronym of SEMH, Social. Individuals with SEMH needs struggle significantly with social interactions. This post explores how you can support them with social interactions.
👋 Welcome to SEMH Education!
Every week, I share insights, strategies, and tips from my experience working with children and professionals on social, emotional, and mental health in education. This week, we’re exploring something that is incredibly important for children with Social, Emotional & Mental Health needs: Boosting Social Skills. I’m going to highlight why I believe it’s important and also go through some activities I’ve used in the past, which have achieved great outcomes.
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🤝Supporting Social Interactions
Building positive social interactions is key to helping children with Social, Emotional, and Mental Health (SEMH) needs thrive. Yet, for many of these children, socialising can feel overwhelming, leading to frustration (sometimes leading to crisis situations), anxiety, or withdrawal.
As professionals working in education, we play a crucial role in creating environments where children feel safe, supported, and empowered to connect with others.
Do you think we should focus more on structured social times in educational settings? Let me know!
🗣️Why Social Development Matters
In my view, social interactions aren’t just about making friends, they’re fundamental to emotional well-being, self-confidence, and long-term success.
All children may struggle with emotional regulation, communication, or interpreting social cues, making everyday interactions a challenge. If this is identified and the child is not supported, this could compound until they have significant social, emotional & mental health needs.
A structured and nurturing school environment provides the stability and guidance they need to build these vital skills. Which can be so impactful for children who are missing this social piece of their development puzzle!
Here are just three benefits of implementing structured social time:
✔ Increased self-esteem: Small successes in social situations help build confidence.
✔ Emotional resilience: Feeling understood and included reduces anxiety and frustration.
✔ Stronger relationships: Positive peer interactions lay the foundation for healthy friendships.
The key? Creating opportunities for social growth in a safe, structured way. Here’s how we can make that happen:
💡Practical Strategies for Teachers
✅ Daily Emotional Check-ins: Start the day with a quick check-in using emotion words or visual cues. This helps children name their feelings and prepares them for social interactions.
🧑🏫Own Experience: These are great! You can create different check-ins depending on the age of the children. Anything from putting a picture of their face onto the Inside-Out Emojis. To a discrete shoebox with a hole in the top, for children to write a message about how they’re feeling.
This little activity, which can become part of your morning routine, is incredibly helpful. Once a member of the class team checks through the activity, you can pitch the rest of the activities below appropriately to ensure the children engage with them. For example, if little Robbie has placed himself on the sad/down emoji, you know that he needs a little Up-Regulation activity or more meaningful check-in before he can access the next part of the day.
✅ Structured Group Activities: Plan small-group tasks that encourage collaboration and turn-taking. Assign clear roles to reduce anxiety and build confidence.
🧑🏫Own Experience: This is great for encouraging children who may be quite reserved. If you split the class into smaller groups and give them a task to complete, assigning children roles is a great way to ensure everyone’s included.
I’ve used these really successfully with tasks such as escape room puzzles, art project mural and of course, the good old newspaper bridge builder. There are loads of different roles you can assign in these activities. If you’re unsure or want more info, leave a comment!
✅ Circle Time & Discussions: Create a safe space for children to share thoughts, listen actively, and develop empathy through guided conversations.
🧑🏫Own Experience: We used to hold one of these as a whole class every Friday. Name it whatever you want too, I know older children HATE the phrase “Circle Time.” Having a dedicated time and safe space for reflection on the week is great. I notice that children would start looking out for their peers doing the right thing so they could share it at the end of the week.
The way I modelled it was to have a 50/50 split of sharing something they enjoyed this week and sharing something about one of their peers. E.G. Amir might say “I noticed Taylor holding the door yesterday for Mrs B in Class 4, I thought that was really kind.”
✅ Peer Support & Mentoring: Pair children with SEMH needs with understanding, supportive peers to model positive social behaviours.
🧑🏫Own Experience: This has its benefits and drawbacks. It’s an age-old technique, so I won’t go in-depth describing it. When it works through it REALLY works! You just have to be extremely mindful of who you place with whom! I’d also check with the parents of both children if you’re unsure about it!
✅ Social Stories & Role-Playing: Use real-life scenarios to teach appropriate responses and problem-solving in different social situations.
🧑🏫Own Experience: Love them. Create a quick comic strip of a social interaction you think a child is struggling with, and allow them and a peer to read through it and try and highlight where the child in the story might need support.
I always find that tackling the problem from a third-person perspective really helps children with SEMH needs.
✅ Inclusive Play & Breaktimes: Set up structured, low-pressure games to encourage social interaction, with clear expectations for turn-taking and teamwork.
🧑🏫Own Experience: Any low-threat games are great to encourage teamwork and turn-taking. Simple ones like Snap, Dobble, Chase the Ace, etc. Chase the Ace was a massive hit in my last setting. At Christmas, we had a huge table of 3 classes all playing one game!
Make sure you explain the rules thoroughly and give chances for practice rounds so all children are able to take part. Building time for games like this into your week is NOT a waste of time. They are games, yes, but they’re also such an important opportunity to build so many different social skills at once.
For example, in Chase the Ace, you’re looking at people’s body language to see if you’ve got a safe card to stick with. People are trying to outsmart you and use their poker face. For a child who struggles with this, games like these are essential for social development.
✅ Social Skills Workshops: Explicitly teach skills like active listening, conflict resolution, and emotional regulation through engaging, interactive activities.
🧑🏫Own Experience: Another way to really drill down into specific issues is to teach specific skills. For example, I’ve used this line with almost every class I’ve taught: “When you did ___, it made me feel ___.” This short sentence really helps children understand each other on an emotional level. We all know children act without thinking sometimes. This sentence allows them to effectively explain to their peers how their actions made them feel.
This can also be a handy trick for staff members too, to avoid the long speeches after playtime and lunchtime of the drama that has ensued. Teach the children to use this: “When ___ did ___, it made me feel____.” E.G. When Jake tripped me up, it made me feel embarrassed.”
✅ Model Positive Interactions: Children learn from what they see. Demonstrate respectful, positive communication in your daily interactions with children and colleagues.
🧑🏫Own Experience: You can have some great fun with this one within the staff team. Modelling positive communication and new language to the children during your interactions.
For example, “Oh thank you ever so much Mrs K, for bringing me this divine cup of tea. I am most grateful!”
Obviously, this is wildly over the top and dramatic. I also know every teacher is a great performer, we have to be! The point here, though, is to continuously model positive interactions. Make sure the other adult replies in a positive way, too. You can drop in more complex language as well, which shows the children the appropriate way to use these challenging words.
✅ Celebrate Progress: Recognise and reinforce even the smallest social successes to build motivation and self-belief.
🧑🏫Own Experience: I’ve completed another post on this here. So again, I won’t go into too much detail. However, recognising and reinforcing social wins is huge for children. It shows them that what they are doing is correct and working. It can be something as simple as saying, “Well done, I really think Maddie appreciated it when you helped her find that missing Lego piece.”
🧠Final Thoughts
Supporting social development in children with SEMH needs is a gradual process—it takes patience, consistency, and a whole lot of encouragement. But when we provide the right environment, we help them develop the confidence and skills they need to navigate the world with greater ease.
By making our classrooms inclusive, supportive, and socially enriching, we can empower every child to connect, communicate, and thrive.
After reading this post, how are you going to foster social interactions within your setting?
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