Teaching social skills

In my Behavioral Instruction class, we have written lesson plans about teaching social skills. This project seemed like a piece of cake, but I found this to be a surprisingly challenging activity. My classmates chose the following social skills to teach: maintaining eye contact, empathy, taking turns, table manners, shared responsibility, good sportsmanship when losing, self control, saying "please" and "thank you," and following the rules. We all do these things, but found it challenging to break down into instructional procedures. When was the last time you cognitively thought through saying please and thank you? And, how can you break the behavior down into not just steps but explanations that are understandable for younger children on children with disabilities? How do you teach a student with autism how to maintain eye contact? In class, we've decided it is important but not easy! I chose touching. I decided on this topic without any thought about the current Sandusky case; in fact, I didn't even think about the sexual context of touching. I initially thought about how to be gentle, what's and when is appropriate. I wanted to write a lesson plan on how to hug and when to give a high five, hug, or get someone's attention with touch. When I was researching for ideas, I was struck by the amount of instructional content devoted to inappropriate touching and sexual harassment for students of all ages - including primary. Everything I looked at spent a week of curriculum (combined) on processes for how and when to touch, and weeks on the inappropriate sexual component. This isnt shocking to me, but still caused me to pause and think about the society we live in today. It is saddening. I remember going through Mrs. Daniel's counseling sessions on Ruff McGrough and drug awareness . Of course, this was in the 80's and Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" program. In elementary school, I was taught to say no to drugs. In elemetary school, my boys will learn about what is not appropriate touch and where is not a safe place to touch or be touched. It is important, just a tad scary. So, this commentary is about two thoughts: 1. It's amazing how challenging to teach the "easy things" can be. 2. Our world is a much different place. Our children have to learn about very adult things at such young ages, and it makes me sad.