NO 1695
Social Competencies:
Affect
Social competencies relating to affect or emotional functioning can be said
to involve a broad category of skills that influence a child or young
person's overall pattern of functioning, Mastery in this area includes the
skills required to manage emotional turmoil, personal thoughts, and
feelings. Competencies in this area also involve a range of skills
associated with presentation of self in interpersonal relations. Affect
competencies are highlighted with respect to the following areas:
Self-Image: These developmental competencies involve a young person having accurate and positive thoughts and feelings about oneself. Such competencies are necessary for meaningful social interactions and for such tasks as tolerating one's own mistakes or learning to be more assertive in social relationships.
Impulse Control: A young person's social competencies in this area involve the ability to monitor and control personal thoughts and actions. These competencies are necessary in order for a child to sustain attention in a given task or to learn to wait their turn.
Social Perception: Social competencies in this area involve a young person's ability to "read" the emotional communications of others and to "hear" what is expected in given social situations. These developmental competencies are necessary for learning to make friends, for becoming part of a group, or avoiding expUlsion from formal settings such as a library.
Social Judgment: A young person's social competencies are influenced by the ability to weigh alternatives, probabilities, and potential consequences of actions in different social situations. Developmental competencies in this area are necessary for weighing up situations such as when to be assertive, when to walk away from a fight, and working out how to save face in socially demanding circumstances.
Delayed Reward: Social competencies are restricted for one who is unable to postpone gratification for future gain. Developmental competencies in this area are necessary for such tasks as saving one's pocket money to buy an expensive item of clothing or budgeting for personal care items between one pay packet and another.
Foresight: These social competencies involve the ability to contemplate future events in the midst of current activities and circumstances. Developmental competencies in this area are necessary for planning ahead, developing action plans, and for maintaining conscious self-control of behaviors.
Motivation: A young person's social competencies in this area involve the ability to take pleasure in and derive satisfaction from semi-autonomous achievement. Such developmental competencies are necessary if a young person is to learn how to read for pleasure, pursue hobbies, ride a bicycle, or engage in any other type of self-learning activity.
Adaptability: Social competencies in this area involve a young person's ability to remain calm, focused, and persevering in the face of change. Developmental competencies in this area are necessary for mastering anxieties involved with change and transitions such as moving to another town, changing schools, starting work, ending a relationship, and so forth.
Body Image: Social competencies for a young person in this area involve an internal awareness of bodily feelings as well as a conscious awareness of body feelings in space and time. Such developmental competencies are necessary to help a young person prepare for a first date, to modify impulses to behave dangerously, or to maintain purposeful involvement with selected peers.
Learning is clearly inhibited when a young person is handicapped by anxieties, rage, or a distorted self-image. Learning is also impaired when a child is unable to give and receive affection. In more subtle ways, learning is hampered in young people who cannot deal with sadness, joy, excitement, or who repeatedly stumbles in social situations because of misreading the emotional responses of others and her or his impact on others. A young person lacking in emotional competencies may be incapable of heeding danger in the face of risk-taking behavior or helplessly paralysed by anxiety. She or he may be unable to think and plan ahead, to know when the teacher or foster parents are angry, or to understand why other children in the playground avoid playing with her or him. Finally, she or he may be unable to take risks in relationships for fear of making mistakes, even though risk-taking is an important part of social learning,
RICHARD SMALL and LEON FULCHER
Small, R.W. and Fulcher, L.C. (2006). Developing Social Competencies in Group Care Practice, in Fulcher, L.C. and Ainsworth, F. Group Care Practice with Children and Young People Revisited. New York; Haworth