The pandemic has put a pause on a lot of social activities. School is one of those significant focal points of socializing and social development. So, what happens after an entire year of minimal socializing is suddenly flipped around, and things are slowly returning to some semblance of normal? While some of us are breathing a sigh of relief, others may be feeling the strain of social obligations that they had been free of for months.
Social burnout or social fatigue is described as feeling overwhelmed in social situations for being subjected to too much socialization than what is comfortable. Symptoms include feeling irritable, physically tired, and frazzled. This is a term usually reserved as an introvert issue. However, those who are socially outgoing are not immune to feeling “peopled-out.”
There are many social situations where anyone can feel uncomfortable. Some students may be good with smaller gatherings, and others thrive in a crowd. Others may have a more challenging time with most people because of the lack of mutual interests. Being forced to conform to anything that is outside of your comfort zone will cause stress and fatigue.
Personality tests are something that some may use to identify where someone lies on the introvert/extrovert scale. These tests claim to identify those who are people-oriented and those who prefer to fly solo. They fail to recognize the wide range of characteristics in between and how people will act in certain situations.
COSEC for Kids (Cognitive Orientation & Social-Emotional Competency) is a unique personal aptitude tool developed specifically for kids under 13 years of age that follows the PCB (Perception Conception Behavior) model. The PCB model uses the individual’s view of the world (perception), how they process that information (conception), and how the relationship between the two influences an individual’s characteristics, traits, and preferences (behavior). This tool is formulated to give an in-depth understanding of how children behave and why by taking a closer look at how they process information and form preferences and behaviors in response.
These preferences and behaviors are essential to identify scenarios and situations where social fatigue may occur and the resources and tools to help cope with those situations. This tool can also predict behaviors in certain social situations and how those around them may interpret those actions. It can also offer suggestions and guides to particular preferences or skills that a child might already have available to help them in a given situation.
COSEC can identify which students are more prone to social burnout and which situations are preferable for optimal performance. While not necessarily suggesting avoiding stressful social situations, the COSEC points out these scenarios and helps parents and educators open up the conversation with their students and tackle those triggers that may cause students to have a hard time.
Having a tool like COSEC for kids will help parents and educators identify challenges and show a child’s strengths. Knowing these can assist with improving those challenges and taking advantage of those strengths to bring overall improvement to the skills a child already has. Our goal is to improve overall confidence by knowing and having the right resources for any situation.
