Social Skills Blog #2- Language
Social Skills Blog #2- Language
Language is such an important part of human interaction. Sometimes we might not realize how we speak has an effect on our behavior and vice versa. When we speak to friends and family, this is often different than how we would speak to a boss or a teacher, or how we would write in our professional careers.
There are two different types of language; formal and informal. Below is a quick overview of both types of language.
Formal language is less personal and is often the type of language used when writing for professional or academic purposes. You tend to stay away from the use of colloquialisms, and using ‘I’ or ‘We’.
Informal is what we all use and know very well. This is considered language we use in spontaneous and “real-life” situations. This is a more casual and laid-back type of language. Everyone speaks in an informal language since this is our way of speaking in a personal manner.
Language is often hard for children on the spectrum. There are different approaches for teaching children to not only communicate more effectively but, to reciprocate greetings from adults and peers, to start and end a conversation, or to learn how to interrupt a conversation someone else is having. These are all very important life skills for kids to learn, and for us to teach.
When teaching children to reciprocate greetings from adults and peers, we will often start by teaching them to imitate what we say. For example, “Hi, Sue!” with their body turned in the direction of the adult or peer, and work on looking at the individual as well. This will help to teach them how to properly greet someone as they arrive or leave.
Conversation is tricky because there are many moving parts associated with it. Often we learn this incidentally, but for some learners, it is not always this easy. Teaching children to be able to answer questions such as “What’s your name?” is just as important as being able to approach another child and say “Hi, my name is Sue”.
Below are some ways to help teach conversation skills to learners:
The best ways to teach conversation starters and conversation in general, is to keep it natural. This means to keep it as close to “real” as possible. Using opportunities that spontaneously occur and is natural, often are the best learning opportunities.
Use a visual to help prompt them to initiate conversation with someone. Some learners need that extra prompt, and it is a great teaching tool!
One of the biggest and often most challenging part in teaching conversation is teaching children to ask others’ questions. You can again use visuals for this, from a calendar with events on it, to even photographs. All these things can be used to help prompt a child to ask questions such as “What did you do over the weekend?” to “What are you doing tomorrow?”
Last but certainly not least, teaching learners to comment is an important skill as this makes up most of the conversation. We aren’t going around asking questions all the time, so teaching kids to comment on things they're doing, to things others are doing is very important. One way we can teach this is teaching kids to comment on what they see in their surroundings. This can be from something they see in a book, to something they see outside on a playground. Teaching them to say “I see…” helps them to learn to comment on things and over time helps to build up a conversation.
Conversation is one thing that we all use and a very important part of what we teach to children on the spectrum. Those of us who work here at The Behavior Place take every step possible to make sure we are helping to teach our learners conversational skills.