Assertiveness

The Assertiveness programme will heighten the student's awareness of and give practice in the skills of assertiveness. Being assertive improves people’s chances of getting what they want, reduces frustration, leads to open, positive relationships and increases feelings of self-worth.

Assertive people can communicate both positive and negative feelings clearly and honestly. They have the confidence to stand up for their rights. They do not suffer undue anxiety or guilt. They will regard the feelings and needs of others. They do not bully, ridicule, manipulate, mumble or sound apologetic. They maintain their own dignity and self-respect while respecting others.

• Strategies 1 -4 Encourage students to think about their behaviour and how they react. Aggressive, passive and assertive responses are contrasted and the consequences of these ways of behaving are explored.
• Strategies 5-7 Verbal and non-verbal skills involved in assertiveness are identified, modelled and practised. 
• Strategies 8-9 Students assess themselves on the various types of assertion and identify people with whom they find it difficult to be assertive.
• Strategies 10- 11 Attention is drawn to the difficulties young people can encounter in saying 'no'.
• Strategies 12- 13 Evaluation

Your Choice is a complete, easy-to-use course of PSHE activities and strategies, with accompanying photocopiable master worksheets. It is designed for Personal and Social Skills lessons or active tutorial work, based on experiential learning methods. The exercises are flexible enough to be dipped into as a component of a Health Education, Religious Education, or English course. For young people Your Choice provides a secure and stimulating framework within which they can consider their attitudes and behaviour, and develop more mature insights into their own personalities and their interaction with others.

Each handbook represents about a term's work on a specific aspect of personal skills development and each chapter provides a structured lesson plan, and suggestions for further work. Assertiveness allows students to contrast aggressive, passive and assertive ways of behaving. Opportunities are provided to identify, practise and be assessed in the skills of assertion. The course is designed to develop confidence and self-respect, helping students to be more positive, open and assertive in their relationships.

Authors Shay & Margaret McConnon spent 15 years in special education, teaching young people who had emotional and behavioural difficulties. They developed programmes to enhance the self-worth of these students and to improve their social skills. The Your Choice books are best sellers in their field and continue to form the basis for many PSHE programmes across the English-speaking world.

'Your Choice Series is a valuable resource, which can be used with flexibility – large chunks or single activities can be used with equal success' Tracy Hollyhead, Social Inclusion Facilitator, Telford & Wrekin Council Sensory Inclusion Service.