The Providence Center School’s social skills groups provide students with opportunities to learn about and practice good personal and interpersonal skills.

The social skills groups that are implemented into the classroom curriculum serve as the building blocks between learning and improved social and emotional functioning. Students will have the opportunity to learn and explore appropriate ways of establishing, building, and maintaining positive and meaningful relationships. Specifically, students will learn appropriate coping and problem-solving skills, empathy building, assertiveness/refusal skills, decision making, identification and expression of feelings, perspective taking, and demonstrate respect for self and others. The groups are also geared at improving students’ self-confidence and self-esteem. These skills will be presented through the use of therapeutic games and activities, role-play exercises, and discussion processes.

There are monthly group themes (e.g., respecting self and others, bullying, improving self-control, self-esteem and self-confidence, relationships, and expression of emotions) that are implemented throughout the school. Students will have opportunities to learn, practice, and apply what they have learned throughout the day. The teachers have an active role in assuring that the skills the students are taught are carried throughout and generalized in their daily routines at school and home. Furthermore, the groups are geared toward fostering and strengthening relationship bonds and creating safe and positive learning environments where students can learn, become more cognizant of their strengths and weaknesses, self-regulate, and develop a healthy sense of self.