We hear an awful lot about IQ’s when talking about education, but what about Social Intelligence? Have you ever met that doctor that was off the charts on abstract intelligence, but just couldn’t seem to communicate very well with his/her patients?
In Karl Albrecht’s book, Social Intelligence-The New Science of Success, the author discusses the elements that are vital to having a high social IQ. I’m sharing these today in my Tuesday tip in hopes of helping parents and teachers to work with children in another important aspect of their lives—their ability to socialize with others.
Mr. Albrecht has created an acronym-SPACE- to help us to recall the elements that are most important when thinking about social skills. They are as follows:
Situational Awareness-The ability to know what to do socially in a variety of situations. For example, does your child know what to do when joining a group of students already immersed in play? How can he/she effectively join the group?
Presence- physical appearance, mood, and body language. In other words, would you hang out with you?
Authenticity—being true to yourself. Many children aren’t exactly sure who they are. They struggle to figure out their own values. One idea would be for your child to create their own mission statement that would include his/her principles that he lives by.
Clarity—communicating effectively so that others understand. Along with this is listening and asking questions in order to understand others as well.
And finally, Empathy—being aware of another’s feelings and learning to see another’s perspective.
Excel Achievement Center works with Brittany Schmidt and Julie Christensen who run a wonderful “social thinking groups” course for children. If you would like to learn more about this, simply email brittanyabc@gmail.com or call (605)351-1002.
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