Teaching conversation skills to middle and high school students can be a challenge. Part of the challenge is that today’s social skills are defined by texting, instant messaging, and social networking. Unfortunately this does not help our students develop the conversation skills necessary for successful interactions with peers OR in the academic or future workplace environment. Of note, some of… Read More
Peaceful Communication: activities to improve conflict resolution & interpersonal communication
I found myself thinking about the new school year before the last school year ended. In my prior post, Helping Students Talk About Tragedies, I touched upon my concern over the violent climate of our times and our roles as SLPs in helping children process and express their thoughts and feelings. As violence unfurled over the summer, my immediate thoughts… Read More
Working With Teens: Helping Conversation Flow
My teen group is busy establishing connections in an effort to get to know each other better. We had a great session last week (which you can catch here) and I tried this fun activity a few days ago: Last week, the group was instructed to bring four items to this week’s session. An item that represents: something they… Read More
Conversation Skills
Having good conversation skills is one of the essential ingredients to developing and maintaining meaningful relationships in adolescence and into adulthood. However, difficulty having good conversations can create a significant social barrier for making and keeping friends. This is especially true for children on the Autism spectrum. In my clinical experience working with children with social challenges, many commit… Read More
Ideas to Teach Friendship Skills
Many of the students I work with in social cognition groups struggle with displaying curiosity in the interests of their peers. Most of us learn about our friends through a combination of observation and asking questions. It’s important that we store this information so that we can remember what we know about our friends. This shows that we are interested… Read More