Peers Helping Peers

Programs For The Preadolescent

Judith A. Tindall, Shirley Salmon

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781135059453
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

First published in 1990. This book includes a program for peers helping peers at the pre-adolescent stage. It provides information for peer helpers to learn helping skills; be a special friend to others; become an effective helper; share with others and show they care. It will introduce skills such as getting acquainted, the helping process; caring- listening with your body; empathy; the 'I' message, helpful questioning; conflict resolution; decision-making and goal setting and putting peer helping into action.

 

PART I

LEARNING

ACTIVITIES

You are about to start a program that will help you get along better with yourself, your family, and classmates. You will learn about yourself and how to help others. We believe that the skills you learn will help you in your role as a peer helper and later in life as a worker, parent, and friend. We believe that the first person with whom someone talks to about a concern is a friend, so for peers to talk with peers is natural.

These activities you are starting to experience are different than other activities you do at school in that you will be asked to be involved completely and you will be asked to share about yourself and to practice certain skills.

These activities will help you understand how you can help others, how you can let someone else know you are really listening, and how you can help others resolve disagreements and conflicts. These skills can be used one-on-one with a friend or with a special friend your supervisor has asked you to help. These skills also can be used on the playground, lunchroom, and other areas.

Peer helper training is more than the kind of learning where you sit and listen to a teacher. When each new skill is presented, you will be asked to practice the skill and also do homework. Your leader will demonstrate many of the skills to you before you are asked to do them. You also will receive feedback on the skills from your leader or teacher.

One of the experiences that help you grow is writing daily about your learning and how this applies to your daily life. Please use the space provided in your workbook to write your thoughts and feelings.

To learn the skills you must be actively involved in the activity. We encourage you to become serious about the training. How much you learn depends on you. We want you to look ahead and imagine an exciting fun time in learning human relationship skills. You will find that these skills will help you in many ways for the rest of your life.

Throughout your training you will have an opportunity to hear others share ideas, beliefs, and basic information. You will be able to observe skills as they are demonstrated and practiced. Yes, you will become involved in a very active-interactive means with your leader and your peer helpers who are in training. The basic concepts of tell, show, and involve apply to good learning and helping.

TELL ME

and maybe I’ll remember.

SHOW ME

and maybe I’ll understand.

INVOLVE ME

and I’ll learn, I’ll change.

MODULE 1
GETTING ACQUAINTED

GETTING ACQUAINTED

The following activities will help you learn about yourself and others in your peer helping group. The activities help you and other peer helpers know things about each other that only our closest friends and family know. As a result, you will be better able to learn skills in other modules in this book.

Name ____________________________

Date ____________ Hour ____________

Activity 1.1

WARM UP TO GETTING ACQUAINTED

GOAL:

To get to know other peer helpers.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Name the color that most describes you.

Example: I am the color blue.

2. Tell why this color is you.

Example: I am the color blue, like a mountain lake because my outer self is warm but deep in me is coldness.

3. Tell what form you created with your color.

Example: I am a wrinkled, blue ball.

Activity 1.2

GETTING ACQUAINTED

GOAL:

To help you develop a personal relationship with other peer helpers.

DIRECTIONS FOR “NAME TAG” ACTIVITY:

1. Cut your name tag into a shape that you like.

2. Draw a symbol or picture on your name tag that tells something special about you.

Example: Name tag cut in form of football and then name added plus lines to make the name tag resemble a football.

3. Select a partner and see if your partner can guess the meaning of your symbol in the picture.

4. Introduce your partner to the group saying,

a. your partner’s name,

b. explaining the picture or symbol, and

c. anything else you learned about your partner as a person.

DIRECTIONS FOR “DRAWING ABOUT YOU” ACTIVITY:

1. Divide a sheet of paper into four parts.

2. Draw something that is very important to you in each part.

Example:

Part 1—Family

Part 2—Computer

Part 3—Person Working in woods

Part 4—Radio

3. Find a partner and share your drawing with the partner and what it means.

Examples:

I have a brother and a mom and I love to play on computers. I also like to play ball and ride my bike. My favorite way to relax is listening to rock music.

4. Listen carefully to your partner and then share your partner’s drawing with the group.

DIRECTIONS FOR “NAME GAME” ACTIVITY:

1. Listen to your leader give directions for you to participate in this activity as a volunteer or as a listener.

2. Say your name and tell something about yourself.

Example: I am Shirley and I love listening to music.

3. When you ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Letter to Peer Helper
• Contents
• Part I Learning Activities
• Part II Application of Skills Supplementary Activities
• About the Authors