Last year, a parent looked at me puzzled across the table “YOU go outside? To RECESS? And just stand by the kids? Isn’t that WEIRD?”.

No, I explained. I get in there and play with them. And the parent looked even more suspect.

To me, push-in social skills instruction is something I have been doing for years, and I love it (especially on warm days!). I wanted to share how I do it and why I think this is such a valuable model for kids in need of social support.

What exactly does push-in social skills look like?

To me, push in social skills is providing support and instruction in the area of social skills in the regular education setting-the classroom, recess, playtime, math groups, even Art!

How does this service come about?

For me, push in social skills is never the first step in my services. First, I directly teach the skill. Let’s say the student has objectives to initiate play and conversation, for example. First, I’m going to be working with the student individually or in a small group to directly teach the skills. What language do we use to ask someone to play? What questions can we ask friends at lunch? What do we do if we don’t want to play the same thing? Then, I work towards it in a smaller group setting, if done individually, or with regular education students. I do this frequently in lunch bunches-we ask a friend to come to each lunch, have “topic talk” and play a game. THis is so important for my kiddos to practice their conversation and play intitiation skills in a smaller, more comfortable envionrment.

Then, once students have mastered these skills in small group, we’re ready to bring them to the playground or other location! Here are my tips for push-in social skills!

• Have a conversation with the student at the beginning of the year (or when you start the service) about why you are there and what their goal is. Nothing is more awkward that being followed around by a teacher and you don’t know why! So I’ll tell my kids: “I’m going to come out to recess on Tuesdays! I’ll be there with all the kids but I want to help you work on your goal of playing with other students”.
• Play. You guys, for this to work, you have to actually get in there and play with the kids. I’ve had paraprofessionals support at recess as well, and there is such a difference in support when you are “observing/supervising” versus playing. You need to play. Does your student want to ask someone to play hide and seek? Well you better go find a hiding spot because you need help keep your student engaged in this!” Is your student playing soccer? Better brush up on your knowledge of rules of the game!
• Interact with everyone. One of the things I love about push-in at recess is that it gives me a chance to see and interact with ALL students. If you are ever feeling lonely, just head to a Kindergarten playground because someone will definitely compliment your shoes or ask you to watch their cartwheel within 2 minutes. This makes the environment feel more natural, and also encourages other students to join into the activity you are facilitating.
• Facilitate. I mean, that’s why we are there, right? If I just walked away every time I said to a student “okay our goal today is to play with a friend for 5 minutes” and they said “eh no”, I would never get anything done. We are here to teach, so….break down the steps to asking someone to play. Re-engage your student when they start running off. Help them problem solve when their friend wants to play something different. Facilitate!
• Celebrate the good and reflect on your goal. Don’t forget to go back at the end of your session and refelct on the goal. “That was so much fun! You played for 7 minutes with Andy and you got to run around on your own!”

And that’s how I help my students transfer skills they learn in direct instruction with me, to the regular education setting. What works for you?