This age group should be able to identify, understand, and react correctly to positive and negative communication from peers. .
Students with 3 or more office referrals in one month were selected by teachers to participate in the group. The office referrals consist of negative interactions with peers, bullying, and disrupting others during class, lunch, and recess. The teachers sent home a parent consent form to participate in the group 2 weeks prior to the start of the group. All parents consented to their child participating in the group. .
Solution-focused therapy should be used when using group counseling with children. The goal of the group should be emphasized on finding a persons strength, positive coping skills, and solutions. According to Henderson & Thompson (2011), the group should be one of collaboration and opportunities. The school social worker should find an effective way for recruiting members into the group such as teacher referrals or office referrals. This will help to focus the group on a specific issue such as bullying and truancy. Parent consent should be given prior to starting the group along with student assent from the children participating in the group. Confidentiality should be explained by the school social worker and the group should make rules during the first session. By establishing ground rules and structuring the group during the initial session, the school social worker defines expected behaviors (Henderson & Thompson, 2011). .
Interventions.
During the six-week group counseling with children with negative interaction issues, these are the lessons used. The lessons are reviewed each week and connect to one another by adding a new component to building positive communication skills with peers. Some examples of the activities are as follows:.
APPLE BULLY ACTIVITY.
Bullying comes in many shapes and forms including name-calling, pushing, excluding others, threats, rumors, and many others.