Teaching Special Needs Children to Resolve Conflicts

Social-Emotional Skills and Conflict Resolution

Before teaching children about the process of conflict resolution, instilling empathy – the ability to consider another person’s perspective – is critical. Other social-emotional and communication skills that are necessary for learning conflict resolution include:

Educational resources such as a visual feelings chart and interactive books can be helpful tools, especially for children with special needs who may struggle with verbal communication and emotional regulation. Other strategies for teaching conflict resolution include (but are not limited to):

Reinforcing social-emotional and communication skills on a daily basis will help children with special needs understand the concept of conflict resolution and learn how to apply these skills in real life.

As with teaching any new life skill, all children will have their unique strengths and may face different challenges. It is important to create an individualized approach to help make learning more engaging and effective. Of course, as children age, the types of conflicts they are presented with, and possible courses of action will often become more complicated and nuanced. Introducing and reinforcing the concept of conflict resolution at a young age will help students respond well to the conflicts they will face both inside and outside of the classroom.