In response to these serious concerns, programs specifically designed for training social skills in children to improve their peer relationships have proliferated over the past few decades. Fundamentally, the value and aim of social skills training is to develop emotional-social intelligence and skills in children to improve all of their relationships. The specific focus of training may be therapeutic for children who already have social problems - to provide them with positive skills, attitudes and strategies to replace their negative or ineffective ones - or educational and preventive for reasonably functional children or those "at risk" of difficulties due to their circumstances - to teach them social skills to enhance their friendships and thereby, armour and protect them from peer rejection and its long-term, life-threatening effects.
While schools can conduct treatment programs for children with problems by withdrawing them from classrooms for skills training individually or in small groups, they are particularly suitable locations for prevention programs in classrooms and indeed, across the whole school. Teachers can be assured that by creating a positive social climate for their students in the classroom, they may be saving their lives, at least in terms of quality of life.
And the universal traffic light has a critical role to play in the STOP THINK DO program. It accelerates the learning process as it cues people to use:
Research in Australia and the UK into the program over the years has yielded very positive results for children of various ages and abilities. It shows that children learn to solve social problems maturely, control aggression, feel more confident, and be more acceptable to peers when they participate in STOP THINK DO training. Parents and teachers report benefits which extend to school and home. And the traffic light is seen as a powerful and universal cue for all concerned.
In addition, STOP THINK DO has been further adapted as a model for directly improving children's motivation for academic learning through the devising and implementing of individual learning plans with teachers. These plans also follow the traffic light cue. Basically, children are motivated to improve their weaker areas when their strengths are identified as their potential (what they can achieve) at STOP, and individual learning plans are devised to raise weaknesses up to strengths at THINK and acted upon at DO. Motivation for any change comes from seeing what is possible and planning how to achieve it! These plans can work for all students, including those with special needs like attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, asperger syndrome, anxiety, dyslexia, intellectual delay, anxiety and gifted underachievement. Most importantly, students are active participants all the way in their learning plans. As a result, they feel more confident, empowered and responsible and less overwhelmed, frustrated, anxious or angry. This process can take the emotions out of learning difficulty, just as it can for social problems. And the quality of children's lives now and in the future is further enhanced.