Friends club reinforces social skills for students with
disabilities
Like most high school clubs, Circle of Friends
– the Path to Inclusion is all about socializing.
The San Benito High School club pairs general education students
with those who have a developmental disorder that makes social
interaction a struggle, such as those with an autism spectrum
disorder. The students enjoy lunch together, exchange phone numbers
and set up activities outside of school.
Friends club reinforces social skills for students with disabilities
Like most high school clubs, Circle of Friends – the Path to Inclusion is all about socializing.
The San Benito High School club pairs general education students with those who have a developmental disorder that makes social interaction a struggle, such as those with an autism spectrum disorder. The students enjoy lunch together, exchange phone numbers and set up activities outside of school.
Kyrsten Campbell, a senior, signed up for the pilot program last May.
“I had a hard time trying to meet new friends,” Campbell said, during a lunch meeting of the club this week. “I didn’t realize how nice the people would be. It helped build up my confidence.”
Campbell has high-functioning autism.
Through the program, Campbell is paired up with Veronica Johnson, also a senior, and two of Johnson’s friends. The group eats lunch together a couple times a week and exchanged phone numbers to keep in touch.
“A couple of them took me out for ice cream,” Campbell said.
Johnson, too, remembers the trip to the ice cream parlor, adding that it was nice to spend time with Campbell off campus.
“Her jokes are really funny,” said Johnson, who is president of the club this year.
Casandra Guerrero, a speech and language specialist at San Benito High School, launched the club last year in May with the pilot program.
“I’d been going to a lot of training in autism and teaching social skills,” she said.
Standards support program
One of the recent findings in the National Standards Project, a report that identifies established practices that are shown to work with autism, was that students needed to take what they practice in therapy settings outside the classroom.
“They have to be able to use them and need to practice in a natural environment,” Guerrero said. “Practicing in a therapy setting isn’t sufficient to transfer it to a real-life setting.”
The Circle of Friends program was started by Barbara Palilis, who uses a technique of pairing up two to three general education students per student with a disability. There are 35 chapters in California and two in Oregon.
In the pilot program, Guerrero recruited eight students with special needs and 30 general education students. For this year, she wanted to expand.
“I had about 30 students with special needs that I wanted to build circles around,” she said. “The general education students sign up with friends so there are two to three per group. They have a support group if they don’t know what to say in a situation.”
Guerrero recruited more than 100 general education students for this year by going to leadership classes, doing presentations in other classes and through word of mouth from other teachers.
“At first, I didn’t get the response I wanted,” she said. “I did the Club Day and had students stand up in class … I had a big group meeting and didn’t get the turnout.”
She said she went back to the classes and clubs and ended up with enough students to pair up with all those with special needs that she had selected.
“The most important thing is the commitment and the confidentiality,” Guerrero said. “They are working with students with different types of disabilities and it’s not to be shared with everyone.”
But she said the year-long commitment is a big part of it, too.
“These are students who generally have a rough time on campus,” Guerrero said. “They have been let down a lot or been rejected.”
Guerrero trains the general education students by talking to them individually on what the students need to work on and what some of the effects of their disorders might be. She described one student with special needs who was reluctant to give out his phone number – his mother later explained it was because he couldn’t remember it and got embarrassed. Another student didn’t know how to respond when his friends called him on the phone.
Guerrero walks around the groups during their lunch meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, to see how the conversations are going. She is there to guide them if they need help and she is also available after school if any of the students want to talk.
A commitment for all
The program is a commitment for the students with development disabilities, too.
“We are asking them to give up a whole lunch to socialize,” Guerrero said, adding that socializing can be hard work for them.
Even though Johnson has cousins with autism who live in Los Angeles, she said she was still nervous before she was introduced to the student with whom she worked in the pilot program and before meeting Campbell this year.
“I think I got more nervous,” Johnson said. “I didn’t know what she was like and I didn’t want to say the wrong thing.”
At first, she said Campbell was shy, but now that they have been meeting for a few weeks they say hi when they see each other on campus and are more comfortable talking.
“I know how my cousins were, but I didn’t realize there are so many different levels,” Johnson said. “The (autism) spectrum is so wide.”
Adam Bell, a freshman, said he signed up for the club because he “wanted the opportunity to make friends.”
Bell, who has a developmental disability, said he likes being able to talk with his friends and do activities together. Guerrero said the students in the club with special needs all have some sort of developmental disability that affects communication or social skills.
“What I like is meeting new people,” Bell said, of the club.
Johnson said the influence of the club is spreading outside its boundaries. Even students who are not involved in Circle of Friends, but who know someone who is, are talking more with the students who have disabilities in their classes.
“They gain an understanding, patience,” Guerrero said, of the general education students who are participating. “The goal in starting the program is inclusion and acceptance of differences, and to reduce the bullying of students with or without disabilities.”
Raising awareness
One component of the club is that this year the students involved will give a disability awareness presentation to the freshman students. They will continue the presentation with each incoming class of freshman.
“It’s really just about understanding that people are people,” Guerrero said. “We are all different and its OK.”
Johnson said she has already learned some things from working with her friends just a couple months.
“It was more learning how to create a friendship,” she said. “We take for granted being able to talk to other people and make a connection.”
Circle of Friends
Virtual Bowl-a-Thon
Circle of Friends is hosting an online fundraiser, a virtual bowl-a-thon. Students can register online at www.circleofriends.dojiggy.com. There, they can select their chapter by clicking change team, then join team and clicking on San Benito High School. The students can then mail or e-mail friends and family asking them to make a donation. For every $100 students raise they win an event T-shirt or a $5 gift card to Starbucks, In-N-Out or GameStop. The overall top student fundraiser will win an iPod touch or netbook. Of the funds raised, 50 percent go to the chapter and 50 percent will be used to promote inclusion by helping to start new Circle of Friends chapters.
For more information, call 310-312-6600 or e-mail
ta***@ci************.org
. For more information on the local chapter, contact Casandra Guerrero at 637-5831 ext. 175.
