Learning Activity 2: How to Support Natural Social Interactions
Time to complete: 2 hours
Tasks
Watch these slide presentations:
Suggested Discussion Board Activities and Assignments
Discussion Board Activity - Service Club Discussion:
A 7th-grade student with deaf-blindness belongs to a service club at her middle school. In order to ensure she has a valued role, consider the following:
- Is she assuming a role that is necessary in the group? In other words, is it a role that must be performed?
- Is the role valued by other members? (Is it “cool?”)
- Does she have a choice of which role to assume?
- Is she contributing in different ways over time or is her role static?
- Does everyone have the opportunity to give and receive support? (Interdependence)
- How can you assure that the student with deaf-blindness has a valued role within the group?
Respond to at least one other person’s post about strategies that could be used to foster the student’s engagement in the activities of the group.
Takeaway
- Seek shared activities that focus on equity in terms of the roles each student plays.
- Interveners must avoid inadvertently becoming a barrier to friendship building.