Creating Circles of Friends: A Peer Support and Inclusion Workbook - Softcover

Wilson, Derek

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0954635108 ISBN 13: 9780954635107

Publisher: Inclusive Solutions, 2003

Synopsis

'Creating Circles of Friends' by Colin Newton and Derek Wilson

“In an intact group the pool of shared understandings is like a shared bank account of the group wealth”

Circle of friends is an approach to enhancing the inclusion, in a mainstream setting, of any young person (known as ‘the focus child’), who is experiencing difficulties in school because of a disability, personal crisis or because of their challenging behaviour towards others.
The ‘circle of friends’ approach works by mobilising the young person’s peers to provide support and engage in problem solving with the person in difficulty. ‘Circle of friends’ is not the same as ‘circle time’ but many of the skills and techniques used by teachers in ‘circle time’ can be used to support the ‘circle of friends’ process.

Over the past five years we have been encouraging the use of ‘circle of friends’ in a wide variety of primary and secondary schools, often with very successful outcomes. A major advantage of the approach is that it does not involve a major commitment of time from teaching staff. This is because the true work is done by the peers themselves, not the adults. The adult’s role is to meet with the circle and the focus child for around 20-30 minutes weekly to facilitate their problem solving in the early stages. Successful circles will often become largely self-sustaining and provide support for the focus child without the need for regular adult input. When there is careful planning and real commitment from the facilitator, results from the process are seen very quickly.

If you are a special educational needs co-ordinator, a form tutor, a primary class teacher, a youth worker, a support assistant and you are concerned about the isolation of young people you know with a disability or difference, then this is the book for you. If you are a parent of a child labelled disabled, it is likely that you already know the difficulties facing your son or daughter in achieving the breadth of friendships and relationships that others take for granted. This is the book for you. You may also be aware of your own need, as an adult, for support and perhaps have a wide circle of friends upon whom you can rely. The work described here will help you reflect on this need and consider ways in which you can strengthen these relationships.




Reviews

‘This book has been based on Canadian Research and offers a simple but well-tried and tested solution/technique to help with re-integration into main stream classroom for children with behavioural problems.
The "Circle of Friends" technique is based on inclusion rather than exclusion and works by looking at the problem the child has in their social life and by involving their classmates to help them rebuild their social circle. This ultimately leads to the child learning more appropriate social behaviour, which will enable them to get on better with their peers. Obviously this in turn helps them to rebuild a peer group relationship and to continue to work on problems that will lead to more acceptance and inclusion rather than exclusion from these groups.

Using step by step directions on how to set up a "circle of Friends" case studies and examples/templates of handouts which can be used both by parents in the home situation and by others who work with or care for the children out of school activities and well as being used in school. This helps to reinforce the technique across all aspects of the child's life which essential for optimum consistency and effect.

The authors bring the "circle of friends" technique in an easy to read and well set out and written format.

Edition details

• Publisher: Inclusive Solutions
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0954635108
• ISBN 13: 9780954635107
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 96