The Ready, Set, Play! Social Enrichment Program is based on the I Learn Through Play™ curriculum developed by Shirley Aninias. I Learn Through Play™ is designed to teach play skills in a group setting by providing visual tools that support the foundation of play and social skills, repetition, reinforcement, frequent opportunities to practice specific skills and multiple opportunities to generalize skills. We believe that social skills instruction needs to be guided in a systematic hierarchy at an early age in order to establish a foundation for them to build upon. The program is also tailored to enhance a child’s cognitive, social/emotional and communication skills by incorporating a fun multi-sensory approach to learning.
In our experience some programs do not concentrate on teaching and developing group play skills. They expect them to learn it incidentally. As a result, when children are presented with an opportunity to engage in a group activities they exhibit difficulties participating appropriately spontaneously. This is often due to a lack of exposure to structured group play. Our experience shows that with an educational plan tailored to the child’s needs, they can learn the skills necessary to participate in group play without reservation. Group play is a highly effective way for children to learn and master social skills.
- Visuals tools that support the foundation of play and social skills
- Repetition, reinforcement and consistency to acquire the skills
- Frequent opportunities to practice specific skills
- Multiple opportunities to generalize skills
Social Skills
The I Learn Though Play™ social curriculum is tailored to improve the following areas:
Joint Attention
- Eye contact
- Responding to name
- Following directions
- Increase affect
Cooperative Play
- Joining in/Initiating play
- Sharing an experience about what she/he sees or likes
- Sharing/turn taking
- Navigating social situations
- Negotiating a peer conflict/compromising
Conversation
- Sense of proximity when speaking
- Interacting with others
- Monitoring own behavior
- Acknowledging and responding to others
- Sustaining on topic
- Appropriate volume
Self Regulation
- Improving frustration tolerance
- Coping with changes in routine
- Spatial awareness
- Using emotions to effectively communicate needs appropriately
- Negotiating a peer conflict
- Reacting appropriately to others when things do not go their way
Emotions
- Understanding non-verbal cues
- Facial expressions
- Body language
- Using and understanding emotions
- Showing compassion
Friendships
- Recognizing friendships
- Sustaining friends
Class Ratio
- There are 8 students, 1 teacher and 2 assistants in each class.
- The Social Enrichment Program is comprised of 1 senior special education teacher, and 2 assistants.
- Special Education Itinerant Teacher (SEIT’s) and special instructors, and other related outside service providers are welcome to “push in” their services (hours must be approved by the director.)
- We follow the Léman Manhattan Preparatory School calendar.
Team Approach
- Parent training and collaboration with your child’s providers is an important component of our program. (It is highly recommended that we work together to ensure your child reaches his or her fullest potential).
- Children usually first acquire the target social skills at Ready, Set, Play! Once they have learned specific skills it is important that it is generalized in other settings, with other people, and in different contexts.
- For these skills to carryover, it is imperative that all the providers on the team coordinate to ensure that the learned skills are generalized across settings.