Social skill: asking for help.
Asking for help can be difficult for many students and even adults. One of the reasons students do not persist into the second year of post-secondary education is their failure to ask for help with everything from counseling to tutoring to financial aid.
Help students practice asking for help by taking a fun and playful approach. On separate slips of paper, write down situations in which a person is asking for help -- e.g., “a teacher asking a colleague for help grading a huge pile of papers,” “an astronaut asking for help getting out of his suit.” Invite pairs of students to pick a situation and act out the scene including all the skill steps identified below.
Skill Steps:
- Look at the person.
- Ask the person if he or she has time to help you.
- Clearly explain the kind of help you need.
- Thank the person for helping.
Check out this article from the Huffington Post on why it’s so important for kids to learn to ask for help.