Making people perform a social task is not the same as teaching a social skill. If the skill involved isn’t taught, or is just too hard, then the solutions of “make them teach” or “make them do highly social extracurriculars” or “make them do group work” are straight-up punishment for success and make the “bored as hell” option look pretty attractive.
Yes—it’s more forcing someone to learn social skills, than actually teaching social skills. Practicing a whole lot works as a way to learn, but hopefully there is a more efficient, less unpleasant way.
I also know a girl in high school who had asperger’s syndrome and was an extreme extrovert (she felt bored if she didn’t have an outing or a visit from a friend almost every day if it wasn’t a school day), and she still seemed to have significant trouble with social skills. So I guess that might mean that either practice doesn’t work for everyone, or doesn’t work as well as I had thought.
Hrm. Good point. Now that I think of it, I would have hated my own suggestion at the age to which it applies, although I’m a fairly extreme introvert so I may not be a representative case.
Making people perform a social task is not the same as teaching a social skill. If the skill involved isn’t taught, or is just too hard, then the solutions of “make them teach” or “make them do highly social extracurriculars” or “make them do group work” are straight-up punishment for success and make the “bored as hell” option look pretty attractive.
Yes—it’s more forcing someone to learn social skills, than actually teaching social skills. Practicing a whole lot works as a way to learn, but hopefully there is a more efficient, less unpleasant way.
I also know a girl in high school who had asperger’s syndrome and was an extreme extrovert (she felt bored if she didn’t have an outing or a visit from a friend almost every day if it wasn’t a school day), and she still seemed to have significant trouble with social skills. So I guess that might mean that either practice doesn’t work for everyone, or doesn’t work as well as I had thought.
Hrm. Good point. Now that I think of it, I would have hated my own suggestion at the age to which it applies, although I’m a fairly extreme introvert so I may not be a representative case.