Download Social Communication Workshop

Caspian Jamie & Rajinder Randhawa
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To discuss what a Social Communication
difficulty is
How to spot a child with Social
Communication difficulties
Practical tips to support children with Social
Communication difficulties
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Children with Social Communication
difficulties have problems in the following
areas:
Understanding the rules of communication
Forming and maintaining relationships with
others
Social communication includes adapting how
you speak and otherwise communicate to fit a
social situation
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Social Communication difficulties can affect
children with :
• Autistic Spectrum Conditions
• Poor receptive language
• Poor expressive language
• Difficulties with Attention and Listening
• Lack of good role models
• Emotional and Behavioural difficulties
• Low confidence
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In groups discuss how we would spot a child
with Social Communication difficulties in the
classroom? What would you see?
Feed back to the rest of the group
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Lack of eye contact
Lack of friendships
Unable to start conversations with others
Veers off the topic of conversation
Difficulties using the right tone of voice
Difficulties reading body language
Not being able to adapt their language for different audiences
Difficulty understanding facial expressions
Difficulty understanding their own emotions. ‘Melt downs’
Behaviour difficulties
Struggles Reading others emotions
Difficulty Predicting how others may react
Misinterprets social situations
Difficulty understanding jokes , sarcasm and figurative language
Saying inappropriate things. No tact
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Kieran
During Science, Kieran was disrupting the
lesson by calling out. He was trying to change
the conversation to his special interest, minibeasts. He was insistent that the teacher
answered his questions, getting more and
more agitated, when she tried to ignore him.
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Understand that children with Social
Communication difficulties are not simply
rude or naughty
Understand that Social Skills can be taught
Teach and practice vital social skills in every
day situations
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Most young people with Social
Communication difficulties have poor
receptive language skills and have difficulty
with long verbal instructions
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Gain their attention first
Use short sentences
Avoid ambiguous language
Avoid changing basic word order
Emphasise key words in a sentence
Talk slowly and clearly
Use gestures and visuals to make meaning
clearer
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Visuals can help to support understanding of
language
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Young people with SCD have language
difficulties that cause them to interpret what
others say in a very literal way.
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Avoid sarcasm, language with double
meanings and idioms.
Directly teach figurative language
Don’t expect them to infer what you mean.
Always be explicit.
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Social Rules may not be obvious to a young
person with a Social Communication difficulty
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Social stories are a tool for teaching social
skills
They provide information about situations
they may find difficult or confusing
The situation is described in detail. Social
cues are explained
Adaptation for older children: Comic book
style, designed on computer or the use of
video.
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Difficulties understanding facial expressions
Understanding Emotional Vocabulary
Labelling their own emotions
Predicting how others will feel
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Visuals: Feelings board, thermometer,
emotion scales
Use every day situations to help children to
develop Emotion Vocabulary
Name their emotion for them ‘You seem
happy’
Use video and television as a resource to
comment on emotions
Make emotions explicit do not assume it is
obvious
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Asking for help is a complex skill.
To ask for help we need to first realise that
we need help, then initiate interaction with a
relevant person and construct an appropriate
sentence
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Make a simple cue card. Place it on the child’s
desk
Simple phrase ‘I need some help’ and a
picture of who they can ask for help
Identify when the child may need help and
model how to use the card
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Always look at what social skills young people
are lacking in each situation
Example: ‘You’re boring me now, I’m going’
Directly teach how to end a conversation
Discuss/Brainstorm/Model more appropriate
ways of ending conversation.
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Gary, a Year 7 pupil, enjoyed the emotional
reaction he observed in others when he
pushed them. He laughed when they became
angry.
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Action: A social story was written for Gary,
explaining that the young people he pushed
were angry because they were getting hurt
and that pushing was an unfriendly thing to
do.
This was linked to a reward system so that
Gary earned a sticker for each break time he
achieved without pushing.
Social skills sessions were used to teach how
to initiate conversation.
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Discussed what is a SCD
Discussed strategies to support SCD
Supporting Understanding
Visuals
Social Stories
Supporting Emotional Understanding
Asking for help
Social Skills Training
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