![]() Once they are successful with that – a simple nudge, eye contact, or “What should you say?” can be effectively at providing a prompt. Tell them, “Say oh cool” at first until they are consistently repeating you. You may need to directly prompt them to say certain phrases. Initially your student may not pick up on what phrases they are supposed to repeat or imitate after you model. ![]() Directly prompt your students what to say.My speech therapist and I always work on conversation skills when she is in our room so we can model each concept accurately. Consider scheduling your social skill instruction during a time when a paraprofessional or clinician can be in your group with you. It will be hard for your student to see the natural flow of a conversation when you are trying to model alone. You sound like a crazy person talking to themselves. It’s hard to model a conversation when you are by yourself. Have two adults in one social skill group.They need to see the appropriate way of doing things time and time again before they are able to do it on their own. Now that we have some skills to focus on – how do we teach these concepts? It’s all about modeling and practicing. We want our learners to appropriately and effectively initiate their own conversations without missing a beat. But what about beginning a conversation on their own? It’d be a boring world if we sat around all day waiting for others to talk to us. ![]() Some of our kids may be great conversationalists once they get on a roll when someone starts chatting them up. That means staying on topic and not diverting it to reptiles or American Airlines the second they get the chance. We need our kids to be flexible and be willing to talk about topics that aren’t their favorite. Nobody wants to spend all day talking about one topic. But guess what? Nobody wants to be friends with that kid. If given the option the would spend all day talking about Cars 2 and Lightening McQueen and be completely happy as a clam. Sometimes our kids can be all me, me, me. When a friend gets asked a question, they ask it back because they are interested in their friend’s response. It’s generally considered rude when someone asks you how you are and you don’t ask them back. We want our students to be people that others want to talk to. People like to talk to people who pay attention to them. It lets them know you are engaged and you are paying attention. Commenting is essential because it lets others know that you are listening to them. You may want to work on this with your husband too and teach him the importance of those head nods and uhuhs as you tell him the 25 minute story about what happened to you while you were at starbucks this morning. So where the heck do we even start with this monumental task? Here a few key skills to focus on: Some of our kids don’t pick up these rules naturally – they need to be directly taught. Keeping track of all of these rules is overwhelming to say the least. However for some of our learners with autism – navigating the dangerous minefield of engaging in a conversation is about as terrifying as a Monday morning without coffee. We know the correct volume to talk, we know to ask reciprocal questions, and we know how to switch topics appropriately. All of those social skill rules related to having a conversation are engrained in our head. ![]() We don’t need to remind ourselves to comment when someone is telling us a story or what appropriate body language looks like when engaging in small talk with a coworker. We engage in conversations seamlessly and without second thought. Conversation skills are something we take for granted.
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