LIFE SKILLS

By the end of the topic, the student should be able to;

I. Explain the meaning and types of life skills.

2. Illustrate the importance of life skills.

3. Demonstrate how to use social a skills.

4. Analyze the consequences of not applying social skills.

KEY TERMS:

• Skill: – Ability to do something
• Life skill: – Ability of a person to live in society
• Individual skill: – Are ones which enables a person to understand himself in various ways.
• Self :– awareness – Ability to know yourself better
• Social skills: – Ability of an individual to live in peace and harmony with others
• Empathy: – Ability to understand other people feelings and be concerned about their problems.
• Negotiation: – Ability to agree on issues without undermining or going against ones principles.
• Critical thinking: – Ability to develop deep understanding of something.
• Creative thinking: – Ability to come up with new ideas and ways of doing things.
• Decision making :– Ability to make best choose out of many available options
• Problem solving :– Making choice and acting on it.

LIFE SKILLS:

- A skill is the ability that a person has to do something well.

- Life skills are the ability of a person to live in the society. Life skills enable a person to manage his or her life properly and make it better; Life skills enable a person to kwon what to do at certain times and what not to do.

Life skills include the following:

1. Understanding oneself

2. Build sound relationships with others.

3. Survive under difficult Circumstances

4. Act responsibly and safely

5. Solve problems.

Types of Life skills:

-There are three types of life skills. These are;

1. Individual life skills

2. Social life skills.

3. Effective decision-making skills.

1. Individual life skills

-These skills enable individuals to understand themselves in various ways. People are able to understand their strengths and weaknesses how they think and feel and how they express their thoughts and feelings.

1. Individual life skills include self-awareness, ability to cope with stress and with emotions and assertiveness.

1) Self – awareness

2) Assertiveness

3) Coping with stress

4) Coping with emotions.

Branches of Individual Skills

Short notes on the branches of individual life skills

(a) Self-awareness

- Awareness is the ability to know something. Thus self-awareness is the ability of individual to know himself or herself his or her feelings emotions, strengths and weaknesses.

(b) Coping with stress.

- Stress is mental, emotional or physical tension or pressure. It can be caused by events such as examinations divorce, death of a family member or a friend or problem in the family.

- A person needs to develop skills that

Cope with different emotions enables a person to control his or her strong feeling and actions.

(d) Assertiveness.

-Assertiveness is the ability of a person to know what he or she wants and why and be able to take necessary step to achieve it.

- Assertive person is able to express his or her opinions or desires strongly and with confidence.

2. Social skills

- This is the ability to understand and live in peace and harmony with others. Social skills give an individual the knowledge and ability to live according to the standards of a society.

- Aspect of social skills are:-

 Forming healthy relationships

 Forming friendships

 Peer resistance

 Empathy

 Negotiation

 Effective communication

(a) Forming healthy relationship

Relationships refer to the way people interact and behave towards each other. Relationship can be between children and parents or students and teachers. They can be also be between relatives, neighbors or peers.

(b) Forming friendships

Forming friendship is the ability of an individual to make friends with people whom he or she can share activities, ideas joy and sadness. This life skill enables an individual to form bonds with people and thus prevent loneliness.

(c) Peer resistance – peer pressure

This came about when ones friends influence him or her to do something. Our friends can influence us to do something. Our friends can influence us to do good or bad things. For example, positive peer pressure can lead you to work harder in school and improve you grades

(d) Empathy.

Empathy is the ability to understand other peoples feelings and to feel concerned about their problems. This enables us to share our friend’s problems.

(e) Negotiation

Negotiation is the ability to agree on issues without undermining or going against ones principles Negotiation skills build good understanding.

(f) Effectively communication

Effectively communication is the ability of a person to communicate with people according to their mood, age and back ground .It includes

 Listening

 Reading

 Writing skills

Effective decision – making skills

These skills enable a person to make good decisions. the following are the aspects of effective decision making skills . Critical thinking creative thinking problems solving and decision making.

(a) Critical thinking

Critical thinking is the ability of a person to develop a deep understanding of something. It helps a person to understand the environment in which he or she lives and the problems which might prevent him or her from making proper decisions.

(b) Creative thinking ;-

Creative thinking is the ability to think and come up with new ideas and new ways of doing things. In life creative thinking helps an individual to come up with solution that other people had up with solutions that other people had not through of .

(c) Decision making

This is the ability to make the best choice out of many available options. The choice is made after considering its results. In life it is important to think about consequences before making a decision.

(d) Problems – solving

Problems solving involves making a choice and acting on it problems solving skills are necessary in life because they help individual to make decisions and implement them. In whatever situation they find themselves.

Sources of life skills

People learn life skills from different sources they following are the major ones:-

1. Family ;- parents , guardians and other relatives are the primary sources from whom we learn different life skills
2. Neighbors:- We learn the different ways that people live from our neighbors . Goods neighbors help us to behave well.
3. Friends; friends enable us to acquire various life skills. Exchanging goods ideas with friends help to mould us into well – behaved individuals.
4. Schools; - The goods education we get at school enables us to develop skills for life.
5. Society: - The way people in the society live allows an individual to learn what is expected of him or her and how he or she should behave in different circumstances.
6. Religion; - Goods religious teachings help us to get skills which enable us to live harmoniously in the society.

IMPORANCE OF LIFE SKILLS

 Make proper decisions in life on different matters like friendships , the subjects to take at school and the careers to pursue

 Develop goods behavior; hence a person is able to avoid bad friends and anti – social behavior such as smoking and drug abuse.

 Increase love and understanding for other people because of goods social skills

 Respond effectively to different situation. A person is able to handle unfortunate occurrence such as devoice and death.

 Maintain peace and order. Negotiation skills enable people to solve their problems peacefully. This help to prevent conflicts

 Understand the environment and the ways of fitting in it.

How to use special skills

We can use social skills in the followings

1. Forming relationship with other.

The skills enable one to how to behave in each relationship

2. Making good friends – A person can use this skill to make good friends
3. Showing empathy; This is the ability to feel what others are doing through, especially when others are doing through, especially when others are doing through , especially when they are experiencing problems.
4. Exhibiting peer resistance. It help people not to do things that are unacceptable to society. E.g. fighting , prostitution , theft and truancy
5. Displaying effective communication: - Which is used to established good relationships with other people.
6. Problems solving; This is a social skill that enables a person to make proper decisions in difficult times.

Consequences of not applying life skills

 Failure to apply life skills can lead to problems . Some of these problems are :-

1. Improper choice: - People way make wrong decisions /choices in their education and future careers.
2. Bad behaviors; - People may develop bad behavior e.g. the youth may not respect their parents, teachers and elders due to negative peer pressure.
3. Conflicts;- Conflicts can occur due to lack of negotiation skills . Such as conflicts could be among students in families, and communicates or between countries.
4. Poverty;- poverty may occur or increase due to lack of proper decision – making in the society or country.
5. Poor leadership; Lack of good communication between leaders and the citizens can lead to poor leadership
6. Lack of empathy:- Lack of empathy may lead to increased suffering for those who have problems as those who do not have them may not understand their circumstances .

SUMMARY:

• A skill is ability of a person to do something well.
• Life – skill are ability of a person to live in society well.
• There are three types of life skills – Individual life – skill, social life skill, and effective decision making skills.
• Individual life skill includes self awareness, assertiveness, coping with stress, coping with emotions.
• Social skills is the ability to understand and live in peace and harmony with others
• Aspects of social skills are forming health relationship; forming friendship, peer resistance, empathy, negotiation, and effective communication.
• Effective communication is ability to communicate with people according to their moods.
• Effective communication includes listening, reading, and writing skills.
• Effective decision making skills enable a person to make good decisions.
• Aspects of decision making skills include critical thinking, creative thinking, problem solving decision making
• Sources of life skill include family, neighbors, friends, school, society and religion.
• We can use special skills to make good friends, show empathy, resist peer pressure, display effective communication, and solve problem.