What's the best way to teach young people social skills?

Question

by young people i mean 16-19 year olds

in britain

Answer 1

Give them respect, responsibility and a real life challenge that they believe in.

Educate and support parents.

Travel, appreticeships and community participation.

Answer 2

The teacher should be the best example, and the pupils will follow...

Answer 3

Electric shock collars.

Answer 4

This can be very difficult by the time you reach the ages you are specifying.  But... not hopeless.

I am a teacher of children with behavioral problems.  In my high school teaching experience I found I had the most luck after gaining mutual respect between the student and myself.  Once you are both invested, there is much to be gained.  Without it, you are fighting an uphill battle.  

Once this is (hopefully and ideally) established, I think it is good to use relevant skills and tie it to their daily life... use their experiences and build from them.  Trouble with friends?  Ask for examples and dissect them together.  Then role play and practice.  Give them feedback and set an "assignment" to try the new skill.  Later, ask them how it went - what was effective, what flopped?  Keep trying and processing.  It's not hopeless, but it will take determination and a desire on both your parts to see growth.

Answer 5

Just take them to a different variety of places and meet new people.

Answer 6

Perhaps  practising role playing ?

To promote social skills?

Answer 7

Teach there parents 1st

Answer 8

Best way is by example

Answer 9

Its "How to socialise" not "social skills". And people say "birthing" and forget about being born. There are no skills involved. This is not carpentry with set parameters. By trying to reduce a complex arrangement into small book size bits allow some people to claim to be experts and start selling dodgy ideas of how we should behave. This is dumb to say the least.

There are some things that have no set standard value and socialising is one of them.

I hate that word "social skills". Oh, and birthing too.

Answer 10

Leading by example.  Most 16-19 year olds would never admit to wanting to mimic an adult they look up to, but they do.  I know I did at that age.  The best social skills are developed at that age by observing someone they admire and wanting to mimic them.

Answer 11

Start by discussing what is socially acceptable language/behaviour in different circumstances.

Follow this up by asking about experiences where they have made social gaffs or have been aware of social gaffs made by others.

Take them into new environments - after an initial discussion of what would be socially acceptable/unacceptable in relation to behviour/language/dress code.

Rather than have them being passive observers at an event, ask them to become active observers.  

What have they seen others doing that seemed to be acceptable to others on the whole?

Ask them to complete a review of what they had learnt themselves about this 'behaviour'.

Depends on the institution's policy, but check out - for example - whether you could take them somewhere that they aren't familiar with going (such as a race-track - many have mid-week sessions that last from about 2.00 - 4.00pm ).  

The students could be asked about their beliefs/ideas/understanding  before they went to the event.  It would be productive to record their views after they had visited the event, too.

It might be useful for you to simply group students without their prior knowledge (as it were) to observe behaviour that is the opposite of what is considered 'challenging' on their part: for example: if a student is noisy, then it may be that you can curb their 'noise' by asking them to 'quietly observe' what happens in the main ground between races; at the parade ring etc.

Hope this helps.

Answer 12

The best way is by example.  If you don't have good social skills and behave in a polite manner in public, the youth around you won't either.  

If you are talking about getting a group of 16-19-year-olds together, you could do a workshop.  You could have three different sections of social skills and have them rotate.  One group could learn about table manners by sitting at a properly set table and eating a small meal, one group could learn about etiquette, such as RSVP'ing to invitations and sending thank you cards for gifts.  That group could even have a hands-on experience of making one or two cars by hand that could be used as thank you notes.  The third group could learn about proper behavior in a social setting (saying thank you, please, excuse  me) and how to treat other people.  That could just be in a seminar format, perhaps with a hand-out or two.

Answer 13

by taking them to different places to meet new people and have different experiences.

Answer 14

there are many different ways to do this, leading by example, try to find something that they enjoy doing and set them challenges involving this, music is normally good common ground, set up survey where they go into town and ask people what type of music they listen to, this could help with thier interaction skills, get them to form groups and compose a song be it hip hop, dance, rock anything this helps with thier teamworking skills, give them a budget and tell them they need to furnish a new flat. get them to plan how the challenges are going to be done, get evidence of the task being completed,and to review how well and what they think they got out of the challenge. i used to work with 16-19 year olds briefly, hard work but very rewarding

Answer 15

Through violence and discipline.

Answer 16

if they got older brothers or sisters which are wise it really helps...

Answer 17

They have to be shown, not taught. It is different for people with Aspergers, they would have to be taught, but for most people, it's all about role models, and being with the right people.

Get them to meet people as often as possible, keep them as much as possible away from solitary pursuits such as computers/playstations/dvds and so on.