Skills of Friendship

Create opportunities for young people to develop skills and their own interpersonal style which will allow them to enjoy positive and successful relationships with others.

The skills involved in relating in a positive way with others do not come easily for some young people. Without help, they will continue to be isolated and rejected because of poor 'friendship skills'. People are liked, are popular and have friends because they behave in certain ways. Such behaviours are not necessarily 'caught' but can be 'taught'.

• Strategies 1 –3 Create deeper understanding of empathy and provide opportunities  to practise behaviours which convey empathy.
• Strategies 4-6 Examine the role of trust in  friendship, the importance of making people feel welcomed and valued and of ways  to achieve this.
• Strategies 7-9 Look at basic interpersonal communication skills, especially the skill of listening and getting the other people to talk about their interests.
• Strategies 10-11 Self Assessment
• Strategies 12- 13 Gives the opportunity to apply new skills of friendship to existing relationships

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 structures lesson plan, and suggestions for further work. The Skills of Friendship deals with some of the skills important to successful relationships. Opportunities are provided for students to practise these skills with the aim of integrating them into existing 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.