Social communication skills are imperative for a child’s overall development. Understanding the rules of conversation, expected and unexpected behaviors, turn-taking, and non-verbal communication skills (e.g. body language), all affect the way children create, build and keep relationships with their peers and adults.
CTS offers a Let’s Talk peer group that matches children close in age with various challenges (e.g.Autism, Expressive Language Delay, ADHD, etc.) to help them develop a better understanding of social skills typical for their age. This summer we have targeted all aspects of conversation including: Initiating greetings and farewells, asking and answering appropriate questions, turn-taking, eye contact, and commenting. In addition, we target Social Thinking curriculum vocabulary (e.g. Expected vs. Unexpected behaviors). To touch on receptive and expressive language skills we have worked on describing, sequencing events and retelling information from stories.
The point of the group is to engage students in activities while naturally targeting all aspects of social communication. The group provides models and visuals to help supplement expectations for behavior and to keep us on track. I like to choose a theme, usually related to a book. In the past we have done “There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell,” and “If you Give a Mouse a Cookie.” The most recent book we worked on was “If You Give a Pig a Pancake.”
Please contact CTS if you are interested in joining this group or to find out more about our other offerings.
Seham Ahmed, M.S., CCC-SLP
Social Thinking Resources:
https://www.socialthinking.com/
