About This Lesson
Strong relationships are built on two simple habits: noticing what's good and noticing what's best in the people around us. This Building Relationships bundle combines two powerful wellbeing skills, Showcase the Good and Strength Spotting, to help students strengthen their connections with peers, family, and teachers. Through reflection activities, practical scripts, and classroom-ready resources, students learn how to share good news in ways that deepen relationships, and how to recognize and celebrate the character strengths in themselves and others.
Designed with autistic learners and diverse learning needs in mind, the activities can be adapted for writing, drawing, discussion, visual supports, movement, or other individualized communication methods.
Here's what you'll get:
Showcase the Good Activities
- Good News / Bad News Brainstorm activity
- Good News / Bad News Sorting cards
- Responding to Good News Role Play (Active Constructive, Passive Constructive, Active Destructive, Passive Destructive response styles)
- Practicing Good News Responses with Scripts
- Teacher recommendations for integrating good news sharing into current instruction
- IEP recommendations
- Behavioral Intervention Plan (BIP) recommendations
Strength Spotting Activities
- Signature Strengths reflection and VIA follow-up questions
- YOUR Signature Strengths cut-and-glue activity
- The 24 Character Strengths reference sheet
- Daily strengths-use reflection (Activity / Strengths Used / Impact chart)
- Strength Spotting Shoutout Cards
- My Family's Strengths reflection
- Teacher recommendations for integrating strength spotting into current instruction
- IEP recommendations
- Behavioral Intervention Plan (BIP) recommendations
Why you'll love this activity bundle:
- Helps students understand the connection between communication, strengths, and relationship-building
- Encourages students to develop greater awareness of how they share news and see others
- Gives students practical scripts and strategies they can use in real relationships
- Promotes active-constructive responding, a research-backed relationship skill
- Encourages student choice and personalization
- Supports self-awareness, empathy, and social communication
- Connects relationship-building concepts to everyday classroom and home routines
- Supports SEL, special education, autism support, and whole-class instruction
- Can be adapted for a wide range of communication and learning needs
- Includes practical IEP and BIP recommendations
- Makes it easy to incorporate positive psychology and wellbeing into existing instruction
Ways to use:
- Social-emotional learning (SEL)
- Relationship-building and communication lessons
- Special education and autism support classrooms
- School counseling and social work
- Small-group instruction
- Morning meetings
- Classroom wellness activities
- Advisory periods
- Individualized IEP goal work
- Social skills and pragmatics groups
- Home learning and family discussions
- Whole-class lessons on friendship and communication
What is Strength Spotting?
Humans have a biological need to be seen and appreciated for who we are at our core — in other words, our Signature Strengths. Positive Psychology researchers Martin Seligman and Christopher Peterson created the Values in Action Survey (VIA). This 96-item VIA survey identifies your capacity to exhibit each of 24 Character Strengths. These 24 strengths were identified as being valued by humans across many cultures and holding value throughout history.
Strength Spotting builds on the skill of Character Strengths, moving you from simply becoming AWARE of your strengths to EXPLORING and APPLYING them more intentionally. Strength Spotting is the skill of noticing, describing, and appreciating the Character Strengths in yourself and those around you. This skill encourages you to see people as an orchestra of strengths by shining the light on what is best with the people around you and in your community. This practice not only benefits you—it also helps others, including students with autism, increase their capacity to put their strengths into action in beneficial ways. Let's shine a light on what is RIGHT with us and those around us so we might all flourish together.
The Science of Strength Spotting
The evidence is clear — knowing and using your strengths positively impacts your life. If you keep your strengths top of mind and live them each day, you're significantly more likely to thrive. People who know their strengths and utilize the practice of Strength Spotting experience:
- Enhanced overall wellbeing and life satisfaction
- Greater happiness and less depression
- Greater relationship satisfaction
- Less stress and reduced anxiety
- Higher levels of positive work experiences
- Increased intrinsic motivation and engagement
Looking for more Strength Spotting resources?
Explore the free Strength Spotting Unit Study, which comes with teaching slides, additional worksheets and activities, and even IEP and BIP recommendations tailored specifically to students with autism.
What is Showcase the Good?
When we experience something positive, our natural instinct is to share it! This process, known as capitalization, allows us to savor good moments—but the way others respond makes all the difference. Studies show that when we experience something positive, our first instinct is to share it. But how others respond can either strengthen or strain our relationships. Researcher Shelly Gable identified four response styles to good news–only one truly builds connection: leaning in, asking engaging questions, and amplifying others' joy.
Science of Showcase the Good
The science is clear — only 1 of 4 response styles strengthens relationships and benefits wellbeing. Active Constructive responding, otherwise known as Showcasing the Good, is the only response style that boosts wellbeing, trust, intimacy, social connections, and positive affect. Passive Destructive, Passive Constructive, and Active Destructive all deteriorate relationships and wellbeing. There are also individual differences in how response styles are interpreted. For instance, individuals who are not securely attached might not recognize or interpret responses in the same way as those who are securely attached. The science is not as clear on the right “dose” of Showcasing the Good for long-term benefits.
Learn more about the science behind Showcase the Good.
Looking for more Showcase the Good Resources?
Explore the free Showcase the Good Unit Study, which comes with teaching slides, additional worksheets and activities, and even IEP and BIP recommendations tailored specifically to students with autism.
Proof Positive’s resources are and will always be free. Be well!
Bonus access to full lesson plans and unit studies on the skills of happiness at our Skill Center
