What Do I Say?

Why:

Adolescents face all kinds of new social situations. It’s not easy to know what to say. Sharing both our confusions and our advice can help.

Warm-Up:

Can you think of a time when you had no idea what to say? Or when you said something but wished you could have a re-do later?

Exploration:

It’s normal to not know what to say. Or to regret what you did say, or wish you could have said something else. We can normalize that social mistakes are inevitable. A little practice helps though, so the group could debate how to respond to prompts from this template, or from scenarios they create or shared in the Warm-Up Question. Real-life scenarios from students are always best. The group can offer a safe, non-judgmental space to test out responses, knowing there are many “right answers” here.