Adventures in Social Skills

The ‘Finding Kite’ Teacher Guide

Rachel Holmes

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780367510381
• eBook ISBN: 9781000359893
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This teacher resource is filled with worksheets, tasks and activities focused on developing the social skills of autistic children aged 8-12. It has been created to be used alongside the story Finding Kite: An Interactive Tudor Mystery, although activities can stand alone as a programme of intervention.

Each task encourages young people to think about their own experiences, challenges and goals, building self-esteem and confidence along the way. Suitable for use in small groups or 1:1, the worksheets are flexible in design, allowing the facilitator to respond to the needs of each child.

Key features of this resource include:

• Engaging activities divided into sections focused on 'Making Sense of my World' and 'Connecting with Others'
• Photocopiable and downloadable worksheets, filled with opportunities for reflection and discussion
• The option to use it alongside the engaging, choose your own adventure story, Finding Kite, which immerses the reader in a sensory adventure

Designed for students aged 8-12, this resource provides an invaluable opportunity to build an understanding of the complexities of social dynamics. Although created with autistic girls in mind, it can be used with students of different genders and adapted for their needs.

Part A

Making sense of my world

1

Making sense of my feelings (anger, anxiety, worry, fear)

Mission control … or out of control

Avoiding the panic button

Controlling my superpower

Treasure chest

Mission control … or out of control

Your brain and body are amazing. Every minute of every day you use billions of nerve cells to help keep you in charge of your body. You are a pretty impressive boss – you can respond super quickly to the world around you, send reminders to your brain when you are hungry or sleepy, solve complicated problems, tell your body to perform amazing movements and instantly find memories stored years ago.

You are amazing at controlling your body. But have you ever felt a sense of being ‘out of control’, or felt the world is unpredictable, chaotic and making no sense? Probably yes – we can all feel like this sometimes. We might wish we could be the boss of the world so that it feels safer and makes more sense.

My control barometer

We can’t control everything around us – but we all have some control in our lives.

Cut these out and stick them on the control barometer in the right place for you:

What I wear at the weekend	What I do to relax after learning	The weather
What clubs I join	What music I listen to	How I spend any pocket money
My opinions and thoughts	How other people behave	My favourite TV programme
A power cut or problem with the Internet	Other people’s opinions	The food I eat
What presents I get for my birthday	What I find interesting to learn about	What my bedroom looks like
Who I play with	The amount of screen time I have each day	My bedtime

Avoiding the panic button

There are lots of reasons why we can’t always be in control of what happens – or ‘have it our way’. Sometimes we will have an idea or plan and be told ‘no’.

Try and think of at least one reason why the answer to these requests might be ‘no’:

	It might be a ‘no’ because …
‘Can we have chicken again for dinner today please?’
‘Can we go to the cinema later?’
‘Can I buy some new clothes?’

Sometimes even agreed plans change.

Try and think of at least one reason why these problems might have happened:

	Reason
You turn up for your swimming lesson but there is a sign saying ‘cancelled’
A friend cancels a meet up
You’re not allowed to play outside at lunchtime

When things happen outside of our control, we can feel anxious, angry or frightened. It can be tricky to communicate when we feel like this.

We can use our bodies to stay calm and feel back in control of our emotions.

Do you use any of these strategies already? Are there any others you would like to try?

I use my ears to listen to m...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Adventures in Social Skills
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part A: Making sense of my world
• Part B: Connecting with others